


Love Me Like a Hufflepuff

by kookaburrito



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Crush at First Sight, Crushes, French Kurt, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff Blaine, M/M, Secret Crush, Slow Build, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-01-29 08:23:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12626955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kookaburrito/pseuds/kookaburrito
Summary: Everyone has warned him about the Beauxbatons boys, how they only break people’s hearts. But Blaine, a Hufflepuff from head to toe, cannot resist a particular Beauxbatons boy. Is it true love or just deceitful veela charms?





	1. Chapter 1

Even though Blaine came from a pureblood family and learned how to fly a broom before he learned how to walk, some aspects of his magical education have been slightly neglected. He is as surprised as everyone to hear about the Triwizard Tournament, and though technically he _was aware_ of the existence of other schools, he finds himself ashamed that he knows nothing beyond that.

Now the other two schools are the talk of the town.

“I heard that underwear is prohibited at Beauxbatons,” Puck, a 6th year Gryffindor grins in Potions.

“Stop being so lazy! Did you know that Durmstrang accepts students based on their physical tenacity?” Mike, their team captain, pep talks them after a particularly ruthless Quidditch practice.

“The Beauxbatons girls are all heartless, they will play you and leave you,” Rachel, the Slytherin prefect, interjects with an area of superiority when they’re practicing spells in Charms class, and everyone knows she’s talking about Finn’s summer fling.

“Who cares, Berry, they’re all hot,” Santana says, flicking her wand expertly.

“I know for a fact that the Durmstrang students all have pet dragons, it’s part of the school requirements. My daddy said he’ll get me one,” Sugar tells everyone during breakfast, nonchalantly looking at her nails.

“The Beauxbatons girls are experts on anti-acne spells…”

“The Durmstrang boys are trained to kill with one look…”

“The Beauxbatons girls smell divine…”

“The Durmstrang boys…”

“The Beauxbatons girls…”

Blaine’s head is already spinning from all the gossip. 

“I wonder if they consider Hogwarts boys to be charming,” Joe says to no one in particular.

“God, I can’t wait to see them!” Rory sighs dreamily, “I bet there will be just a perfect Beauxbatons girl for me.” __

“And there will be a handsome and, uhm, strong boy for you in Durmstrang, Blaine” Sam nudges him rather obviously, and everyone turns to look at them.

“Sam, please,” Blaine’s cheeks are burning. Even though he’s out, Sam’s obvious and awkward attempts to make him feel included only tend to embarrass him.

When they are munching on their dinner later that night, Sam resumes with the same old story.

“Dude, it’s been 5 years that I watch you mope around the castle making all the portraits feel more sorry for you than they are for themselves.”

“We’ve been over this a million times, Sam. You know there’s not a lot of options at Hogwarts for someone like me,” Blaine says, and it’s difficult to say it out loud, though it’s true. His cheeks are burning. He doesn’t want to discuss it again, it’s hitting too close to home.

“There’s… uhm, Sebastian?” Sam gestures towards the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, who is now bragging about his new broom that his father sent him.

“No, thank you,” Blaine shudders. Blaine knows that he’s lonely, but he’s not _that_ lonely.

“There’s… Chandler.”

Chandler, a 3rd year Gryffindor, takes this exact moment to wave at Blaine from his table. Blaine nods and forces a smile, rather embarrassed. Chandler has been very intense in his attempts to pursue Blaine. Blaine just thinks that together they look like a couple of hobbits. He feels zero attraction for Chandler, and only recently he managed to convince himself that he shouldn’t feel so apologetic about this.

“It wouldn’t work,” he sighs into his pudding. He doesn’t need to look up to know that Sam is giving him that pitiful look that Blaine absolutely can’t stand.

“I just want you to be happy, bro. Why are you so opposed to the Durmstrang guys though?”

“I haven’t even seen them yet!” Blaine’s cheeks heat up, “And… I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

At that, Sam stops his nagging.

When Blaine lays down in his bed that night, a warm feeling hatches in his chest, that has nothing to do with magic.

The truth is, he is already far more hopeful than he should be.

***

The lights in the Great Hall are sparkling. Each of the four long tables is buzzing with excitement for the evening, because it is a special one. 

When the Durmstrang boys enter the Hogwarts Great Hall, Blaine’s heart is pounding.

They look strong, tall, and quite dangerous. They march in unison, their steps resonating and almost deafening the welcoming applause of the Hogwarts students. Their Headmaster is a big, scary man, whose name Blaine learned was Beiste. They are dressed in leather and animal skin with metallic chains and carrying weapons.

Blaine’s stomach does an unpleasant little flip. Even though what he sees confirms precisely every rumor he’s heard, it’s still disappointing to see the complete and utter lack of any hint at romance or, well, niceness, in the fierce eyes of the Durmstrang boys.

When they line up in front of the professor’s table, Blaine looks at each of them carefully. Suddenly, to his enormous surprise, he notices that there are girls there too. Fierce muscly girls, with long braids and leather boots up to their knees and massive thighs that could crush anyone’s scull in less than five seconds.

Apparently Sam notices this too, because there is pumpkin juice spilling all over his uniform.

“I thought they were gender-segregated schools,” Blaine tries to say as calmly as possible and not to choke on his pie in the process.

“Why does no one read History of Magic? Why? I was telling everyone just last week that…” Tina’s complains are muffled by the applause that welcomes the Beauxbatons students.

Wait.

Does this mean what Blaine thinks it means…

As soon as they enter the hall, Blaine is positive that he can hear a collective sound of people’s breath getting stuck in their throats. Sam’s mouth is hanging wide open, and even Puck seems to have lost his cool. Weeks of gossiping could not have prepared Blaine to witness so many beautiful people at once. He immediately sees Quinn, Finn Hudson’s summer fling. It was about her that Rachel Berry talked endlessly to anyone willing to listen. She is marching in front of the group, her smile as sweet and charming as a bouquet of fresh flowers.

Everyone practically swoons at the girls, at their hair, at their flawless faces, their curves, and Blaine can physically feel Sam’s eyes trying to detach themselves from his body to see better and farther. He would be concerned for his best friend, if he wasn’t so preoccupied with what his own eyes saw.

In this swarm of girls, there are a few boys. When they line up neatly to stand in front of the professors’ table, Blaine has a chance to examine them one by one. He spots four. One has the curls of an angel, one is quite tall and has a sexy moving tattoo on his neck (which strangely doesn’t seem to clash with his pristine uniform), one is black-haired with a playful smile and the last one… is just magically beautiful. Blaine can’t keep his eyes off him.

Words fail him, and Blaine can’t do anything but stare at the boy with chestnut hair, trying to memorize his every detail, heart pounding deafeningly loud in his chest. Oh my, it’s true that it’s been too long since Blaine saw someone fresh, someone who sparked his interest, furthermore someone so unique and beautiful, but there is definitely something special about this particular boy. A stylish scarf adorns his neck, a bird-shaped brooch is pinned on his chest, a pair of cufflinks shine on the sleeves his uniform. He’s different, at least in Blaine’s eyes, and not only because he’s actually standing a little behind the group. He looks more serious and detached than the rest of the Beauxbatons boys, who seem to be enjoying the attention as if they were a popular boy band.

Blaine doesn’t know why, but he keeps stealing glances of the boy when Principal Figgins makes welcoming speeches, his eyes keep searching for more of him all through the feast, he continues looking even when the guests begin to leave the Great Hall.

When his head hits the pillow later that night he realizes that hope has definitely hatched and now is spreading its wings, fluttering all through his body and down to his toes.

***

Four names.

The gossip mill of Hogwarts works wonderfully, and the next morning over breakfast Blaine already knows the four names of the Beauxbatons boys. He doesn’t ask for them, but his ears burn as he overhears multiple times someone talking about them.

Elliot Starchild Gilbert, Jesse St James, Jean Baptiste and simply… Kurt?

He tries to figure out who is who, eavesdropping a little more, but suddenly realizes that Sam has been speaking to him. 

“So, Blaine, what do you think of the Durmstrang boys?”

“What?”

“There is one in particular. Dave Karofsky,” Sam points at the photo in his morning newspaper, of last night’s ceremony. There is a burly Durmstrang boy, standing close to their headmaster Beiste, looking fierce. “He’s rumored to have the highest chance to be selected for the Tournament. And he’s an international Quidditch champion! I never knew!”

Blaine looks closely at the photo. Even though Sam is pointing at the Durmstrang scholars, Blaine’s eyes involuntarily wander to the Beauxbatons crowd, and immediately spot a particular someone, standing closer to the back. On the picture, he’s adjusting his quiff in one swift movement over and over again, and Blaine really wants to get a copy of that newspaper for himself. Before he can say anything, there is a very recognizable loud voice.

“… And Sebastian already asked Jesse out, and apparently Jesse is a snobbish, sarcastic, obnoxious ass, as all the Beauxbatons students are,” announces Rachel Berry triumphantly, marching to their table with a satisfactory grin plastered on her face, “Because he turned Sebastian into a frog!”

“Uhm, are you sure Rachel?” asks Blaine, because he has seen Sebastian that very morning, looking quite human, even by his standards.

“I’m absolutely sure, Blaine,” she flicks her hair as she sits down near him, “The Beauxbatons boys are just trouble, they will only break your heart. As are the girls,” she adds, throwing a satisfied look over the table at Finn. He conveniently turns to Sugar and starts explaining her a spell they had to learn for Charms class.

“Oh, by the way… Where do they live?” asks Blaine, trying to sound calm and detached as he eats his bacon and eggs, while his cheeks turn flaming red.

Sam looks suddenly puzzled by the question too.

“Oh, I’m not sure, Figgins probably organized a dormitory for them somewhere,” says Rachel, immediately losing interest in the subject, as she stands and goes over to the next table to spread her morning gossip.

Blaine catches Sam’s eyes over the table and tries with the psychic thought-reading spell. 

_Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Sam? No?_

When Sam starts gorging down his apple pie and simultaneously talking Quidditch strategies with their team captain, Mike Chang, Blaine shakes his head. 

They never managed to perfect that spell anyway.

* * *

A few days later, in Potions, Blaine mulls over the fact that he still doesn’t know which Beauxbatons boys correspond to which names, and, worse of all, he hasn’t seen any of them around the castle since the ceremony. Where do they live?

He’s so engrossed in his thoughts, that he doesn’t realize that he forgot to add a crucial ingredient to the cauldron five minutes ago. Apparently neither his Ravenclaw companion, Tina, notices this fact. She sighs deeply, and pulls Blaine out of his thoughts.

“Why are you so sad?” he asks her.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she replies, shaking her head. They stand in silence for a few minutes, until it’s time to add another ingredient: some sort of radish that smells like Sam’s socks before the elves wash them. 

“Actually you know what? I’ll tell you,” Tina says all of a sudden, and Blaine almost drops a bunch of radishes in the cauldron, “I’m so sick of this… This Triwizard Tournament!”

“But it hasn’t even started yet…”

“I will never be able to participate,” says Tina, her voice breaking, “Even though I study so hard, and I…I’ve got potential, I could actually win the cup, with my skills and knowledge, they will just choose someone more popular and prettier than me. Like that Rachel Berry.”

“Oh, Tina…” Blaine steps closer to his friend, “Why do you even want to participate in this tournament? Isn’t it very dangerous? Didn’t you say that there were students who got killed in the previous ones? And all the pressure of studying on top of resolving the tasks!”

“But think of the fame! Eternal glory! Everyone will know your name…”

Blaine’s mind immediately conjures images of the Beauxbatons boy, looking at him like he hanged the moon, and Blaine holding the Triwizard cup and smiling. Gosh, he should really stop daydreaming of someone he doesn’t even know the name of. He focuses on Tina, who is still talking.

“They will recognize me for my intelligence and not judge me for how I look or act… No one will ignore me or call me stupid names all the time…”

“Hey, Asian Number Two over there!” Professor Sylvester shouts, “What are you doing with that potion? You want to kill everyone in this class with that abominable smell?! 10 points off Ravenclaw.”

With heartfelt sincerity, Blaine hugs Tina tight when she begins sobbing. He sighs, feeling his heart hurting for his friend.

* * *

On the way to their Quidditch practice, Blaine and Sam talk about the only topic that is occupying the thoughts of all the students in Hogwarts.

“So who do you think will be our champion?”

“Oh man, I have no idea. I just hope it’s not that Sebastian dude, that would be absolutely terrible, ugh, a Slytherin champion? Unacceptable.”

“Sam, that’s not really in the spirit of Hufflepuff,” Blaine gives him a pointed look.

Sam raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, okay, I’ll admit I don’t want him to be our champion either,” Blaine shakes his head in disapproval. Even though Sebastian is among the most likely nominees, Blaine would gladly see Tina as a better representative of the school.

Practice runs smoothly at first, Blaine manages to find the Snitch quickly, and avoids getting Bladgers in the face. He’s quite proud of himself until, with the corner of his eye, he catches a group of people walking up the stairs to the stands, a sea of light blue uniforms, and nearly loses the balance on his broom.

“Blaine, focus!” yells Mike from somewhere above him, and Blaine does his best not to stare at the stands quite so avidly.

Blaine sees that professor Roz Washington is with them, leading some kind of tour of the Quidditch field, probably bragging about the equipment or the protective spells. The Beauxbatons crowd politely observes the stadium.

He’s there too.

Oh god oh god oh god.

Blaine suddenly forgets how brooms work, his heart beats so much faster in his ribcage. He’s gripping the broom so tight his knuckles turn white. He doesn’t want to end up face-first in the mud with _him_ watching.

Suddenly, the crowd applauds. Sam just scored and high-fives Rory midair. Everyone is pleased, Mike smiles, even though he’s the Keeper.

Blaine needs to catch that Snitch, and fast.

Where is the Snitch hiding when he needs it so badly?

Thoughts rush through his brain with the speed of light. He wants to make a lasting impression. He really, really needs the Beauxbatons boy to notice his existence. Blaine doesn’t want to be miserable for another year, third-wheel at Hogsmeade with Brittany or Sam and their dates, spend the days alone in the Room of Requirement or wander around the castle after hours with only ghosts as his companions. He wouldn’t mind just making another friend from a different school, learn something new about magic abroad, he would be happy with that. However, to be completely honest, he wouldn’t mind for that friend to be a handsome boy either. He never had what the others achieve so easily. For the first time, he actually feels that teenage feeling deep in his stomach everyone keeps talking about, and it’s thrilling. 

Suddenly, a glimmer of gold near the stands. He launches himself at it as fast as he can, heart beating loudly in his chest.

It’s centimeters away now, the crowd ohhhs as Blaine reaches his hand and, at the speed of a hunting hawk, catches the golden ball not a meter away from Roz Washington’s nose. The small audience erupts in cheers as Blaine smiles triumphantly, and searches the crowd for that boy who hasn’t left his thoughts in days.

Just as his eyes catch the aquamarine sea of Beauxbatons boy’s eyes, Blaine feels a Bladger hitting him at full speed in the left side of his face, and with blinding pain setting on fire every nerve in his body, he loses the grip on his broom and falls down.

*

“Blaine!”

Blaine wakes up to the sound of Brittany calling his name. He immediately realizes that he’s in the Hospital Wing. Madame Pilsbury is making him drink some kind of disgusting potion, but thankfully the effects are immediate. He already feels much better.

“What happened?”

Lord Tubbington curls in his lap, while Brittany talks.

“That Bladger hit your head so hard, that Sam told me he saw rainbows falling out of you. Well, he didn’t tell me that. But I’m sure they were. And then he and Elliot brought you here, and Madame Pilsbury gave you the first potion. And now she’s giving you the second potion which is actually made of leprechaunt’s blood.”

“Elliot?” Blaine can’t help but perk up. 

“Yeah! That Beauxbatons guy,” Brittany nods, “It was so nice of him!”

“Which one is he?” Blaine’s voice is a little breathless.

“The one with the moving tattoos,” Brittany smiles at him, “They’re so cool, I’m even thinking of getting one myself. But my muggle parents would freak out if I had a tattoo of fondue cheese that would stretch itself from one boob to another on my body depending on my mood.”

Blaine groans, and falls back onto the pillows.

“Too much information, Britt. Too much.”

* * *

As Blaine sits in the library, trying to write an essay for his DADA class that he missed because of the injury, he begins scribbling unrelated notes on the edge of the paper.

It’s quite late and he’s very tired.

He writes four names. Then, with a smile, crosses out one. Definitely not Elliot.

It’s been a few weeks, but, on the bright side, he’s one step closer to resolving the mystery of the Beauxbatons boy’s name.

Gosh, he’s ridiculous. He doesn’t even know the guy. Maybe Rachel’s right, and they’re all stuck-up and obnoxious? The Hufflepuff in Blaine does not believe it though. Elliot helped him when he got hurt, right? Rachel is totally making that up cause she’s jealous of Quinn.

Blaine’s head buzzes, it’s so hard to concentrate. He wishes he knew where they lived, he wishes he had some kind of grand plan to start a conversation with the boy, get to know him better, make an impression. Justify this irrational feeling of infatuation that took ahold his every thought.

Sigh, he also wishes this essay would write itself.

He doesn’t know a spell for that yet.

So he gets up and wanders to the book shelf trying to find the manuscript he needs. Then, to the next. And another one.

There’s no one studying at this hour, and Blaine feels like he needs to hurry up and finish his essay, so he can go and have dinner with his friends.

He finally reaches the shelf he needs, is about to take the manuscript, but then overhears the rustling of robes somewhere to his left.

There are two shadows behind another bookshelf, in a secluded corner.

In the darkness he catches sight of a Slytherin scarf. And a head of curls.

Then he hears a voice.

“God, Jesse…”

He blushes bright red, but smiles despite himself.

Having taken the manuscript he needs, Blaine returns to his desk. Crosses out another name.

Two steps closer.

* * *

In moments like these Blaine thinks Care for Magical Creatures is actually his favorite subject. Today the topic is tiny cerberus puppies and this entire lesson is devoted to learning how to feed them and take care of them. Right now he’s petting a particularly fluffy one called Roar and laughing when one of the heads is trying to steal food from the pockets of Blaine’s robes, and another one is salivating all over his shoes.

He takes a few bones and throws them for the puppy to catch. One of the key-points of the lesson is the importance of providing teamwork exercises for the heads of the puppy in order to make it grow healthy and harmonious with itself. He’s having so much fun watching the puppy run around trying to collect all the bones in its three mouths, that he doesn’t notice right away the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students approach, led by Professor Schuester.

He’s telling them something, and they don’t seem to be very impressed. Blaine looks around. Indeed, the class is absolute chaos, puppies running around and students laughing and yelling, probably having too much fun for such disciplined schools as Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Blaine can clearly see Madame Cassandra July, the directress of Beauxbatons frown her eyebrows and turn her nose. Though some Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students have the same reaction, the boy Blaine is particularly interested in silently stands observing the whole scene, his face as unreadable as a mask. He’s wearing a scarf of a different shade of blue today, and Blaine looks at him a little too long, before blushing and looking away. He doesn’t want to be caught staring.

Blaine is a little nervous of how his school will be viewed, especially by his newfound crush, but everything vanishes from his mind when Roar comes running at him at full speed, and prances on top of him, making him fall on his butt. He begins to laugh when Roar drops the bones on his chest and starts lapping at his face and hands, its tail going crazy behind it.

He’s so engrossed in his task that he doesn’t notice the small smile that appears on Beauxbatons boy’s face.

When Roar is done, Blaine manages to get up.

He notices the boy with the tattoos not a few feet away from him, looking curiously at the dogs, and Blaine remembers something he should’ve done ages ago. He walks over, while Roar follows him, prancing on him every chance it gets.

“Hi! Elliot, right?”

“Oui,” Elliot smiles warmly, “Hello!”

“I’m Blaine. I just wanted to say thank you for helping me the other time, I really appreciate it, you know, when I fell off my broom,” Blaine manages to avoid saying that he actually got hit in the face with a Bladger.

“Oh, do not worry, I am glad you not hurt,” Elliot says simply, the French accent clearly audible, “You have dogs in class… Always?”

“I wish!” Blaine laughs, rubbing behind the ear on Roar’s left head, “No, it’s just for one class. But Professor Schuester will keep them here for a few weeks I think.”

Elliot is standing with his arms folded, even though he seems to enjoy the scene. He waves over at his Beauxbatons friends to come closer (Blaine’s heart skips a beat), but then notices that they’re all walking away with Madame Cassandra July marching in front of everyone.

“Blaine, I have to go,” Elliot shrugs apologetically, “But it was nice talk with you.”

“Same,” Blaine smiles earnestly, “See you around!”

He then rubs at Roar’s tummy, occasionally stealing glances at the group of light blue uniforms that gets closer and closer to the castle.

* * *

“Blaine, we need to talk,” says Sam, sitting down next to him on his bed in the Hufflepuff dorm.

“Is it about the essay for DADA? Cause this time you have to write it yourself, I would help you, but the professor uses a handwriting detector spell…”

“No, it’s about your ginormous crush on that Beauxbatons boy,” Sam announces, solemnly putting a hand on Blaine’s shoulder.

“What? How do you know?” Blaine’s skin flushes red. He doesn’t even have the power to deny it.

“Aha! My deductive skills are amazing!” Sam shouts triumphantly, “He’s got all those tattoos, just like the guy from that boy band Scissor Wizards you really like! I knew it!”

“No, Sam…” Blaine sighs.

“No?”

There’s no use denying it now, he might as well come clean.

“I like… the other one,” Blaine is blushing furiously, rubs his hand over his neck, “The one with the scarf. And the hair. And the brooch.”

“Oh, that one is good-looking too I guess. He looks like a pixie,” Sam smiles encouragingly, and Blaine is grateful for this remark, “Anyway, I still won.”

“You won?”

“Brittany owes me five galleons, cause she was betting on you getting a crush on the black-haired one, who looks kinda like you. She said making out with yourself must be awesome,” Sam shrugs.

“Wha… Sam!” Blaine doesn’t even find it in himself to get mad.

He’s finally a part of the easy teenage banter and teasing he always missed out on. He snorts, trying to imagine Sam and Brittany talking about him, then begins laughing, and Sam joins in too, ruffling his hair.

When they calm down a little, Blaine says:

“So do you know his name?”

“No.”

“What about where they live?”

“No. But we’re gonna find out. Fist bump, bro!”

Blaine fist bumps Sam and smiles. He’s glad to have an ally on his side.

* * * 

A few days after that, when the ceremony of unveiling the Goblet of Fire takes place, (and what a glorious evening that was, Blaine saw the Beauxbaton’s boy again, and admired from afar his stylish light blue bowtie), the school starts buzzing with new intensity.

Who will be the new Hogwarts champion?

Blaine agrees to accompany Tina when she puts her name in the Goblet of Fire. Even though Tina insists on him writing his name too, Blaine refuses, saying that this way she will have more chances to win. Clutching the little parchment in her hands, Tina walks through the Great Hall, to the place where the Goblet of Fire stands, with Blaine following closely behind her.

They sit down for a moment behind the Ravenclaw table. There is quite a crowd there, and he senses that Tina a little embarrassed to be putting her name in, right in front of everyone. Even though she doesn’t say anything, Blaine knows when someone needs to hear a few encouraging words.

All of a sudden, Blaine sees the black-haired boy from Beauxbatons arrive, and confidently throw his name in the Goblet of Fire. A group of Gryffindor girls loudly cheer on him, and shout his name: “Jean Baptiste, we’re rooting for you!”. He grins at them and shoots them a disarming wink.

Blaine’s heart beats loudly in his chest. Even though Tina is shaking in terror near him, he can’t help but smile a little to himself.

This means…

Kurt.

His name is Kurt. 

Blaine has the decency to help Tina gather her courage, and watch her throw her little piece of parchment in the fire, and walk her to her dorm, and say goodnight, before doing a little victory dance right in the corridor, in front of a portrait of a knight who shakes his head disapprovingly. Blaine doesn’t care. At last, he knows the boy’s name.

* * *

A few evenings after that, Blaine sits with Sam in the Hufflepuff living room by the fire, chewing on some comfort food they “borrowed” from the kitchen. Among other things, they have donuts and hot chocolate, a real treat for such a cold Autumn evening.

The comfort food was necessary, because they both got detention the previous day for Sam’s brilliant idea to try to break into professor Sylvester’s cabinet to steal some ingredients for the Polyjuice potion to transform into two of the Beauxbatons girls to follow the others to find out where they lived. Blaine never had the heart to tell Sam that he wasn’t really down with the idea of infringing the privacy of Hogwarts’ lady guests in such way, but he didn’t want to discard Sam’s idea, not when he wanted to help Blaine so badly. And anyway, they were put in detention just for wandering the castle after hours, so Blaine didn’t feel too bad about the whole thing. But he couldn’t say no to food.

Sam munches on his chocolate donut, and begins talking about the Triwizard Tournament, saying that it’s not worth the hype anyway. He can’t remember the names of any previous Champions and that glory is just for history books. Blaine agrees. Then they briefly discuss the potential candidates from all the schools, and then, of course, end up talking about Kurt.

“I need a way to get to know him, Sam,” Blaine says, “I wish… We could talk. Oh, and it would be great if he actually knew who I was, for a start. There must be a way.”

“Operation Woo Kurt now in action!” Sam devours another donut, then says, “I think, there’s nothing more romantic than writing a letter, bro.”

“Yeah, but I still don’t know where he lives!” Blaine pouts.

“You know his name! Also, dude, we’re in a magical school. With magical things. And magical owls,” Sam says, “I swear to god, sometimes you’re even dumber than I am.”

Blaine slowly turns to Sam, and a small smile begins forming on his face, while his eyes sparkle with new possibilities.

* * * 

The next day early in the morning, after a sleepless night of writing, and editing, and re-writing Blaine is on the way to the owlery. This is his moment, his chance. He needs to find an owl that will actually carry out the task, a smart-looking one.

He’s almost flying up the steps of the owlery, clutching an envelope containing a rather short anonymous confession of love, when all of a sudden, among the sounds of the owls, he distinguishes two voices coming from the inside.

He storms in, and…

“Finn, could you please attach this for my dad too?”

Blaine’s jaw drops down to his toes.

Because in the owlery there is no other than Kurt, and… Finn Hudson? Of all people? Blaine tries to regain some sort of cool, even though it’s very hard in front of his crush. In a second, he doesn’t know where to put his hands. Blaine realizes that he’s still clutching the envelope addressed to the person right in front of him. He hides it in his robes. Then clears his throat.

“Uh, Hi! Hi, Finn, nice to see you here,” he’s so tongue-tied, speaking out mainly because of the adrenaline pumping in his veins, “So you two… know each other?”

“Duh, he’s my stepbrother. Kurt. I went to visit them in France over the summer, I thought you knew?” Finn’s looking at him incredulously, while he ties another letter to the leg of an owl and then proceeds to set it free.

There are a million thoughts rushing through Blaine’s brain, but when Kurt looks over at him everything becomes a void.

Blaine blushes under Kurt’s unblinking gaze.

“Oh, I… Nice to meet you, Kurt. I’m… Blaine.”

“Enchanté,” Kurt’s intrigued eyes are still studying him.

Blaine wants to roll around in that accent. In that language. In Kurt’s voice. 

He didn’t know he had the ability to blush even harder.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” Blaine says after a pause, rather lamely, to break the awkward silence.

But Kurt gives him a warm smile.

“Merci, Blaine,” he thanks, before leaving the owlery with Finn.

It all happens so fast, that Blaine has no time to say something else, to begin some sort of conversation. His palms are sweating where he’s still holding the letter.

He grins. 

Kurt said his name. 

Kurt actually looked at him! 

Kurt.

He walks all the way to the Great Hall still smiling and smiles all through the two Potion classes and the Quidditch practice and chess club, up to the point that people start asking him if he is under a smiling spell.

Blaine thinks that he might as well be. 


	2. Chapter 2

The Champions Electing Ceremony goes by in a blur. This year, it’s an all-ladies tournament, with Lauren Zizes representing Durmstrang, Beauxbaton’s Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez from Hogwart’s Slytherin. Blaine claps politely when Santana walks to the podium, a fierce and ecstatic smile of someone who is ready to kick ass. He feels sorry for Tina, who is sulking over at the Ravenclaw table, but he still believes that Santana will be a worthy champion to compete and win in the tournament.

Otherwise, he doesn’t give it much thought, because his mind is otherwise occupied.

Blaine feels like he desperately needs to befriend Finn Hudson, the 6th year Gryffindor Quidditch team captain, on and off boyfriend of Rachel Berry, but he’s not sure how to do this, especially with the first Quidditch match of the season being against Gryffindor. Not only house rivalry prevents him from striking a casual conversation with Finn about his gorgeous stepbrother, but also the fact that Finn Hudson took an instant dislike to him when he and Rachel got close during 3rd year when they were both newbies in moving photography club. That was before Blaine came out, but still.

“Why couldn’t he be _your_ stepbrother, Sam? That could’ve been so much easier,” Blaine sighs, watching Finn and Kurt talk from afar. 

“Yes! And don’t forget about the genes! I always knew you were secretly into me!”

“No, that’s not how it works,” Blaine shakes his head, “Forget about it. There must be a way to talk to him.”

“What about a truth potion?”

“Sam,” Blaine can only roll his eyes, “We already discussed it. That’s illegal. And dangerous. And I don’t want him to hate me.”

“Still very effective.”

They sit in silence for a few seconds, when Sam suddenly nods at someone behind Blaine.

“What about Rachel? Can’t you talk to her?”

Blaine looks over his shoulder to the Slytherin table at Rachel, who is sitting between Santana and Sebastian, and a plan starts forming in his mind.

* * *

He’s patrolling the corridor with Rachel a few nights after that. It’s part of the Prefect’s duties. It also perfectly aligns with his super secret plan of “Talking to Rachel about Kurt”. She’s holding her wand and inspecting every corner with the Lumos spell, while Blaine furtively looks over at her, not knowing how to begin the conversation. Finally, he takes a breath and decides to start from something unrelated.

“So, Rachel, I congratulate you with a Slytherin champion.”

“Yeah, I’m actually very happy for Santana,” Rachel says, shrugging.

“Didn’t you want to be the champion?”

“Oh, well, too much work. Plus, I got back together with Finn, so I don’t really have a lot of free time now. With Prefect duties, Quidditch, the O.W.L.S. coming up this year, moving photography club, enchanting crafts club and everything… That would’ve been torture.”

Bingo! Blaine unknowingly tightens the grip on his wand at the mention of Finn. Here’s a link that could lead him to the topic he actually wants to talk about.

“Oh, good, I didn’t know about Finn, congrats,” he says in a voice too high to sound casual, then clears his throat, “By the way, I recently ran into Finn in the owlery, just, uhhm, when I was sending a letter, and he was with his stepbrother, what was his name? Kirk… Hmm, no… Kurt I think, and…”

“Blaine,” Rachel stops all of a sudden. Her eyes are wide.

“What?” Blaine feels like someone caught him stealing cookies from a jar.

“Blaine,” Rachel repeats, suddenly stepping very close and holding Blaine by the shoulders, “Beauxbatons just brings trouble. You don’t want to get your heart broken.”

“Who said anything about…”

“Trust me, don’t even think of getting involved with that boy,” Rachel shakes her head, “Or with any of them, really. I know what they’re capable of.”

She continues walking, the tip of her wand illuminating the dark corridor in front of them. Blaine hurriedly follows.

“Why… why are you so sure?”

“You know what happened with Quinn. She had absolutely no reason to flirt with Finn that way, and then dump him when she was no longer interested. I know that technically we weren’t together at the time, so as a girlfriend I have no saying in the matter… But she just played with him for her own enjoyment.”

Blaine thinks to himself, ‘Finn never seemed to be heartbroken’. He doesn’t say it out loud. Instead, he focuses on what really matters.

“But how can you generalize all of them? I talked to Elliot, he seemed to be quite nice, also…”

“Oh, Blaine, you poor boy…” Rachel furrows her eyebrows, “Elliot too? It’s the charms. You know it. It’s what happened to Sebastian as well. He fell head over heels for that Jesse the instant he saw him, and look where it got him.”

Blaine blushes, but decides not to disclose what he knows about that particular couple. 

“What do you mean?”

“You should read History of Magic,” Rachel says, “Why does no one read it? It’s all written there. Beauxbatons is the most famous school in France, but they value looks most of all. Why do you think all of the students that arrived are so beautiful and charming and elegant? You never thought that it’s a little bit odd? I mean, we’re all teenagers after all. I haven’t seen a single pimple on any of their faces.”

Blaine doesn’t have the time to reply.

“Their looks… It’s dangerous. It’s all based on magic and charms, not natural at all. They are all veela or part-veela. It’s a requirement for entering the school.”

“Veela.”

Blaine feels something inside of his stomach get cold.

“You know, the beautiful creatures that are like syrens, they lure you in and break your…”

“Break my heart, I know, I know, Rachel, you said it like ten times already.”

They stay silent for a few moments, just walking down the corridor. Blaine can practically feel a million thoughts rush through his brain. Somehow, he never thought about Beauxbatons from this angle. Somehow, what Rachel is saying makes sense.

They reach the place where they usually separate, on the top of the staircase that leads down to the dungeons. Patrolling duties are over for tonight. Blaine turns to Rachel, but doesn’t say anything. He can’t keep up his usually cheerful mood today.

“Blaine, I need to tell you something.”

Rachel comes a little closer to him, looks at him sincerely.

“Kurt’s mom is part-veela. She died when he was a child. I know this for sure.”

Blaine doesn’t say anything, he can’t stand the look in Rachel’s eyes, so he looks at his shoes instead.

“You’re a good guy, one of the best guys I know. I would absolutely hate it, if someone hurt you, if you let someone hurt you, because you feel like you’re running out of time. It’s not true. You will find someone who will love you, the same way I know you’re capable of loving. Please don’t get carried away by an illusion.”

She kisses his forehead, while he stands still.

Raising his head, he smiles, a little brokenly.

“Thanks, Rachel.”

“You’re welcome, Blaine Anderson. See you in Divination.”

He watches her go, and sighs with a heavy heart. Blaine feels the opposite of the way he thought he would feel after their talk.

* * *

The next day, Blaine stays in bed until late. Thank god, it’s Saturday so he doesn’t have to rush anywhere. He feels betrayed, and empty, and Rachel’s words resonate in his mind over and over again.

How foolish he must’ve behaved… It’s all charms, magic. It’s all in his head. He wonders if he would have ever felt anything for Kurt, if not for his veela blood.

Gosh, he doesn’t even know the guy. He knows nothing of Kurt, his personality, his thoughts, or his dreams. Blaine was so desperate to fall in love that he didn’t even pay attention to what he was getting into.

He rolled around the bed, half drifting off to sleep, his slumber not relaxing. After a while he noticed that the dorm was empty, and even Sam wasn’t snoring in the bed next to his, which was a novelty. Blaine tentatively got up, rubbed his forehead. It was a Saturday, so why was everyone…

Oh. The Triwizard Tournament!

Blaine was late for the first competition!

As he ran through the school corridors, he noticed there was absolutely no one in sight. All the students and professors and even the portraits went to see the match. He ran out into the field behind Hogwarts. There was a set of wooden bleachers. The task was being carried out in a clearing in the woods, but with the help of special spells casted out by their Charms professor, the events were displayed in real time on the field in front of the bleachers to help everyone see.

He rushed up the stairs to find Sam, but couldn’t see him anywhere, because the crowd was screaming and yelling. Furthermore, there was not a single empty seat.

Blaine climbed all of the stairs up until the very top, where you could barely see the field “screen”. Suddenly, he spotted an empty seat, and occupied it as fast as he could. Then he turned his head only to find out that the empty seat was next to Kurt. In this very moment Kurt noticed him and smiled.

Blaine blushed, embarrassed.

“Hello, do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full,” he shrugged apologetically. He thought it was polite to ask, even though he had already sat down.

“Not at all,” Kurt shrugged, “Blaine, right?”

“Yes, and you’re Kurt.”

Even though he promised himself this morning to be careful, it took a look of Kurt’s eyes to break Blaine’s resolution and smile at him. This realization saddened him even more. The charms must be very powerful.

“Blaine, you missed the beginning. Ah, the girl from your school was near the giant, but then he broke her wand in half… She could not compete after… But she still got the giant’s tooth.”

“What a terrible game,” Blaine muttered, his eyes getting wider.

“Oh, you think so too?” Kurt whispered, “I felt I was the only to hate the violence.”

“I just don’t understand why force and evil spells need to be glorified so much. Magic can be beautiful too.”

“Yes, I agree completely,” Kurt said with that charming french “r” and then blushed a little.

Blaine did not want to look at him, because he knew that if he looked at Kurt a little more, he would just be too entranced to look away. Instead, he focused on the field. Currently, Lauren Zizes was wrestling with a giant. He was pulling at her braids and she was crying out and shouting magical spells, even though her wand was unfocused. It was a crude task. Santana was lying down several feet away in a safe zone, as white as a sheet of paper, with a broken wand, while Quinn Fabray was just preparing to get on the field after Lauren, and Blaine pitied her a lot.

“Blaine?”

Blaine averts his eyes from the field.

“I’m sorry to ask, but if you could… Maybe, you could show me a little bit of Hogwarts. If you do not want to look at this mess. I mean, just, if you would like so.”

Kurt’s tone was friendly and hopeful, and if it were to happen just a couple of days before, Blaine would be on cloud nine.

For a second, he thought he would refuse, but then the Hufflepuff side in him prevailed.

“Sure, why not? I will be happy to show you around.”

A new friend, that’s what Kurt could be. The whole point of the Triwizard Tournament was cross-cultural communication.

They left the bleachers just as the crowd roared at Lauren’s victory. And then walked across the field back to the castle. It was so quiet there, after the deafening noise in the field.

“What would you like to see?”

“Well,” Kurt played with his scarf shyly, “I still get very lost in the castle. Maybe you could teach me to get around? I cannot walk without getting lost, so I usually walk with Finn. But sometimes he’s a little…occupé… He’s busy for me.”

Blaine suddenly realized how lonely Kurt must feel. In a strange castle, in a foreign land. There are only a dozen or so students from his school and everyone looks at them like they are some sort of animals from the zoo, exotic and fun. Blaine wouldn’t feel surprised if no one showed an initiative to welcome the foreign students. He scolded himself for not thinking about that sooner. With a sudden rush of guilt and benevolence, Blaine turned to Kurt.

“Kurt, if you have any questions, just ask me please,” Blaine said solemnly, “However, do not worry if you get lost. When I first arrived here, once I got lost on my way to the dorm, so I slept in the hospital wing, true story! Hogwarts is so big that even I sometimes get lost in it, after five years.”

Kurt chuckled.

Blaine’s heart, even though he put it in a rational box of denial, began to melt at the cute sound of Kurt laughing.

* * *

“Dude! I saw you and Kurt leave in the middle of the Tournament!” Sam shouted as soon as he barged in the dorm, “Freaking score, man!”

“No, no, Sam, it’s not like that,” Blaine said, a little tiredly. He was lying in bed, under a few patched blankets, reading a book on spells for class. 

“What? Why?”

After spending half a day with Kurt, Blaine felt extremely conflicted.

Kurt was nice. Even though Kurt did not mind keeping silent or taking a little bit more time to answer a question, Blaine did not perceive that as a sign of wanting to leave or being not interested. He was probably struggling a little bit with the language. 

As Blaine showed him the main tricks of how to get around the castle, the Hufflepuff common room, a few distinguished portraits (Kurt particularly enjoyed the acapella gnomes), and explained the principles of the stairs change, Kurt was genuinely grateful. Then Kurt told him that the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students lived in two separate dormitories, which were built especially for them, and appeared as little towers on the base of the castle. However, in order to access them you had to exit the castle first. Blaine, ever the gentleman, walked Kurt to the outside tower, which he was genuinely surprised to see. Even though it looked quite matching with the whole façade of the castle, it certainly wasn’t there last year.

Kurt thanked Blaine a lot during that walk, and Blaine wanted so much the pleasant feeling between them to be genuine. He wanted Kurt to be nice and funny just because of who he was, and not because of his Veela blood. He ignored the attraction he was feeling, when Kurt smiled at him and shyly adjusted his quiff one last time before getting inside the base door of the tower.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” Sam sat beside him on the bed.

“I just showed Kurt around, it’s no big deal, Sam,” Blaine said sadly, and then returned to his book. 

Even though he physically felt Sam looking at him thorough the cover of the book, Blaine went on pretending he was reading.

Thankfully, Sam did not ask any other questions. He only went on and on about the tournament and the fact that all the girls procured the giant’s tooth, but didn’t know what it was for. Blaine was answering absentmindedly. He really did not care about the tournament at the moment, even though he knew Sam really wanted to discuss it, Blaine couldn’t make himself, and was feeling an added layer of guilt for being such a bad friend. But later, Blaine found a plate of his favorite chocolate chip cookies on his bedside table. Sam was always on his side.

* * *

The next Monday it was raining. Blaine was sitting in class, listening to the monotonous voice of the History of Hogwarts professor. There was nothing exciting about the subject. For the millionth time Blaine wished that they could have History of the Wizarding World or History of Wizard Communication instead of this subject, but it was hard to change the traditions of Hogwarts.

He’s noting down the lecture in a notebook, but suddenly feels a strange piece of paper tucked inside of it, that he must’ve put there before.

He takes it out and realizes it’s a letter.

Taking a glance at it, he immediately puts the puzzle pieces together: it’s the anonymous love letter that he has written for Kurt at the beginning of the year.

He feels even sadder than before, looking at the hopeful words of love that he has written down for a boy he barely knew. How stupid and naïve was he?

What he feels most acutely now is shame. For being unreasonable and getting tangled in premature emotions. The rest of the class he proceeds to tear down the letter into a million tiny pieces muggle-style, which makes the task even more tedious and heartbreaking.

* * *

Blaine loves that Hogwarts has so many different after class clubs that he can participate in. A great thing about clubs is that it is basically the only place besides class where he can meet students from other houses in a friendly and informal setting. This is why, probably, there are so many Hufflepuffs enrolled in clubs.

Since third year he has been an active member of the moving photography club. It started out as a fun and easy hobby for him, but through the years he has been perfecting his skills at creating moving photographs. There were so many things that you could do: alter the colors, make the photographs move within one another, cut pieces from one photograph and apply them to the other. The results were fun sometimes, really creative and pretty, or even thought-provoking. You never knew what wonderful things could be created from something trivial.

Now that Blaine has experience, he is teaching a group of newly arrived 3rd years, with Chandler among them, how to alter the colors on a moving photo, making it colorful, brighter, more contrasted and so on. Usually he loves teaching people, but he knows that Chandler is there only to try to hit on him. It’s really embarrassing, because he must be friendly, but not encouraging at the same time.

“The key point is not to Lumos it too much, otherwise the image will fade away,” Blaine says, avoiding looking at Chandler.

Chandler smiles at him, and Blaine coughs, and looks away.

Suddenly he sees Kurt standing unsurely in the doorway.

“Kurt?”

“Oh hi, Blaine. I’m terribly sorry if I’m interrupting,” Kurt said, while the group of 3rd years was staring at him in awe and confusion.

Blaine’s palms were sweating. He felt like he was a kindergarten teacher whose spouse brought him the forgotten lunchbox in the middle of the class, and all the kids were looking at them and whispering among themselves.

“No, not at all. Come on in,” but on the inside Blaine was actually glad to see a friendly face. He noticed how Chandler was shooting daggers at Kurt from behind his glasses.

Kurt shyly entered and sat behind the students, waiting for Blaine to finish his mini-lecture. After Blaine was done, and the 3rd year students scattered around looking at the photographs hanging in mid-air, Kurt approached him.

“Finn told me to come check out the clubs, he says it is the fun places to be at Hogwarts.”

Blaine briefly thought that Finn never joined anything besides Quidditch. He was probably only trying to get rid of his stepbrother for the day.

“Well, I’m glad you came here. In this club, we master the art of moving photographs. You know, the ones you see in newspapers?”

“Oh, I thought you just had to take pictures with the special camera and that’s all,” Kurt said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, we do that too. However, it’s more fun to play with the photos with the different alternating spells.”

The group of 3rd year students, though scattered around the room, was still shooting looks at Blaine and Kurt, because Kurt, being from Beauxbatons, looked exotic and interesting. Blaine hated the attention, and thought about how Kurt must feel like that all the time. He quickly took out some of the best works they did in the club and showed Kurt.

“Look at this! It is a moving picture of a puppy sleeping. I made it infinite and added some color, so it can look more realistic,” Blaine said.

“They are so much like real life gifs,” Kurt muttered under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing, Blaine. I just said that it is very cute.”

For the next hour, since Kurt seemed to be genuinely interested, and Blaine could never shut up about something he liked, Blaine showed Kurt myriads of images. There were funny animals, cool Quidditch moving photos from his personal collection (there were a few where he looked cool, scored or caught the Snitch and he purposedly showed them to Kurt first), funny reaction moving photographs of his friends at school.

At the last category, Kurt seemed to get sadder. Blaine realized that Kurt must feel lonely at Hogwarts. Even though he could not let himself fall for Kurt, he still couldn’t see Kurt suffering so much. Everyone needed friends.

“Why don’t we try to make one together?” Blaine proposed, rather innocently.

“How do we do that?

“We have a few cameras here, oh, actually, there is one,” Blaine took the camera from the cupboard, “We could take a picture together and make it moving! Would you like that?”

“Yes!” Kurt breathed out, all excited. Blaine felt lucky, it seemed like seeing Kurt excited was very rare.

Blaine scooted closer to Kurt, and he blushed. He took the picture right when Kurt was smiling. Blaine pulled a funny face and laughed too.

The moving picture appeared out of thin air near them.

“It needs a few moments for the charms to apply,” Blaine said, shaking the photo a little. “Here you go!”

The picture was very nice. Kurt’s face went from surprised to happy to smiling, while Blaine from confident to pulling a face to smiling wide.

“You say, I can keep it?” Kurt asked, hopeful.

“Sure! I can make a copy, so we both get to have one,” Blaine flicked his wand and suddenly the photography split into two identical ones. 

“You’re really good at this moving photography thing,” Kurt said, impressed, “I wish I could learn more from you.”

“I guess, this is why the exchange program was introduced. So we could learn from each other.”

Blaine tried to let all the other thoughts go away, he was just friendly. They were friends who learned from each other, nothing more.

But then Kurt turned to him, and looked at him with those big blue eyes of his.

“Is it okay if we talk sometimes?” he asked, a little unsure, a little vulnerable.

Blaine’s heart was beating ten times faster than he realized, when he said softly “Sure, Kurt.”

* * *

One day Blaine feels sick in the morning, because Sam, being a caring Hufflepuff, made him a whole batch of cupcakes, but over exaggerated with the sugar. Blaine, being a caring Hufflepuff too, had to eat them all, despite knowing he would get a stomachache. He decides to skip the first class of the day, going to breakfast a bit later than usual. Boy, that was a mistake.

At breakfast he sees both the Durmstrang and the Beauxbatons students having their meals at the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables respectively. Blaine sits down by himself at the long and empty Hufflepuff table. A bowl of chicken soup and one sad slice of bread appears in front of him, and he has never felt more awkward sitting by himself in his life, especially with Kurt being in the same room. He purposely avoids looking at Kurt or any of the other students and consumes his meal in silence.

That is why he is so caught off guard when he feels someone sit next to him. Lifting his head he sees Elliot. Kurt is standing a few feet behind him, he shoots Blaine a small smile.

“Hello, Blaine!” Elliot is especially cheerful, “How are you today?”

“Oh, hi… Hi, guys, I’m fine, what about you?” Blaine replies lamely, shifting his eyes from Elliot to Kurt.

They proceed to chat, Kurt staying mostly silent and looking at him intently, with a mysterious smile. Elliot sometimes struggles to say English words correctly, he has a clearly audible French accent. Sometimes he turns to Kurt and quickly asks for a word he does not know. Kurt takes some time to think, but usually can translate whatever Elliot is struggling with. However Elliot’s attitude is still very positive.

When they leave, Blaine actually feels good about the encounter. Cross cultural communication. That’s what it is. He misses the way Elliot nudges Kurt and Kurt shoves him when they are leaving the Great Hall.

Then he remembers that they are both just filled with veela blood, and their charms are deceitful. It is not real friendliness. They are not genuinely nice. He does not feel like eating anymore, and decides to stay the whole day in bed instead of going to class.

* * *

“Blaine, you need to tell us what’s wrong,” says Brittany in her calm caramel voice.

Sam just nods. He’s been trying to talk to Blaine all week, and worrying about him, and Blaine couldn’t stand it. He probably had talked to Brittany about Blaine’s mood, because Brittany was usually too self-absorbed to notice anything. Now they have cornered him in the library, where he was hiding so he did not need to talk to anyone.

“Thank you for looking out for me guys, but I’m fine,” Blaine replies, and sounds fake even to himself. He does not look up from his piece of parchment for Divination.

“We just want to help you, Blaine,” says Sam for the millionth time, and those words cut through Blaine’s heart like a knife.

“Since Blaine does not want to tell us anything first, I propose that we each share a secret with the group, to make him feel more at ease and leaving him no choice but to tell us what happened,” Brittany says, and the boys look at her, “Sam will go first.”

They both turn to look at Sam, who seems to be caught off guard.

“Hmm. Let me think,” Sam pauses for the longest time, and Blaine knows that Sam is just looking for a secret that they both do not know already. It must be hard for him, pour soul. Then he takes a deep breath and says:

“I tried making friends with some Durmstrang students by giving them Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, and they accidentally picked out all the disgusting ones and they think I’m gross and disgusting. So I ate like a whole new pack to make them think they were actually all nice flavours, and I nearly vomited right then and there and then I ran away.”

Blaine does not know if he should laugh or cry. That was too much like Sam.

“Sam…” Brittany shakes her head, and then tells them a secret herself “I think Santana is in love with someone else, because we are no longer having sex in the changing room after her Quidditch practice.”

“How does that make you feel?” asks Sam.

“I don’t know. If she doesn’t love me anymore, it would hurt, but it would be okay with me. In the end, I just wish she was honest,” says Brittany, shrugging. Blaine thinks that she must be in pain, but has no idea how to express what she is feeling, or if she even is aware that she is in pain.

“Maybe she is just too busy with the Triwizard Tournament,” says Blaine, reaching out a hand to cover Brittany’s. He cannot help but comfort her.

“That’s part of the problem. We could figure out the whole deal with the giant’s tooth if only she trusted in me. But she is avoiding me and not talking about the pressure of it all,” Brittany looks Blaine straight in the eye. Blaine flushes. It’s sort of what he is doing right now to his friends too… 

“Okay, I got it. I will talk about it. The problem is…” he does not know how to phrase it, “I’m no longer in love with Kurt. I thought he could be really someone special, but now I know it’s not going to work out.”

There is an awkward silence, and then both Sam and Brittany take his hands into their own.

“Blaine, I know it must hurt, but I guess you can start looking at other guys? Durmstrang is not that bad after all…” says Sam.

“Blaine,” Brittany looks on the verge of trying to say something similarly philosophical and sympathetic, but instead she pats Blaine’s hand and says, “You’re sixteen. You’re going to be fine.”

At that, Blaine laughs. And actually feels a little bit better.

* * *

Putting his love life on hold, Blaine goes out at full speed on the Quidditch field. There is nothing better than feeling the soft breeze of the wind in your face, as you dart across the field, the cold autumn air blowing at you and keeping you alert and alive. The first match of the season is against Gryffindor, and Blaine should give out his maximum. He knows they can win. The Gryffindor team has always been tough, and now with Finn Hudson as captain, their morale has increased considerably.

Mike Chang makes them train each second of the day. He really wants to win this match to prove to his father that Arithmancy is not the only thing in life that he can succeed in. He grows tense by the second and keeps them all pumped up. Sam even avoids eating unhealthy food to keep his abs in check and his muscles tight because Mike Chang orders him so.

And indeed, when Blaine gets on that field with the roaring crowd behind him, he feels invincible. He forgets about everything in the world, apart for the golden Snitch.

It is a smashing victory for Hufflepuff this year. Blaine does not even remember how the game went, just the feeling of the cold fluttering Snitch in his hand and excitement pumping in his blood.

Surely, he does not even notice the eyes of a certain Beauxbatons boy following his every move through the binoculars.

They celebrate in the Hufflepuff Common Room. 

Of course, since it’s the Hufflepuff Common Room, there is so much food, that the room can barely contain it: snacks, nachos, donuts, pizza, onion rings filling every surface. Sam is shouting something, and people are going bonkers. The music is so loud that the characters have all run away from the portraits. Blaine hasn’t felt so alive in ages! Suddenly he sees a bunch of 6th and 7th years bringing in a whole box of camouflaged Butterbeers. The party was just getting started. 

He takes a bottle for himself and starts drinking.

More and more people enter the room, there are some of his friends from other houses, there is Santana Lopez with a bunch of people around her. He does not see Rachel, she must be consoling Finn at the moment.

He finishes another bottle and feels like he has drunk Liquid Luck. Invincible. Great.

Then there are Durmstrang boys entering the room. Also there is Elliot… Where is Kurt? Is he there?

Sam grabs him by the shoulder and introduces him to the big Durmstrang guy, David Karofsky. He has never seen him smile, and that makes Blaine feel weird. He says:

“You’re weird. Like a bear. Smiling bear…”

“A cute bear?” asks David Karofsky grinning, his hot breath against Blaine’s flushed skin.

“Yeah, why not,” answers Blaine, before he completely blacks out. 

* * *

On the next morning he wakes up with such a headache that even the best hangover spell cannot cure it. What on earth happened last night?

After he and Sam come a little bit to their senses, Blaine asks him about the party.

“There was David Karofsky, and he was all over you, dude,” Sam says, “No need to thank me”.

“I don’t remember anything at all. Just that he was smiling and that was weird,” Blaine says, “Are you sure he is even gay?”

“Bro, he was looking at your sweet booty all through the night,” Sam grins, “I have excellent gaydar.”

“I wish there was a spell for that…” Blaine mutters, “Hm… What about Kurt, was he there?”

“You’re too interested in Kurt for someone who claimed that he didn’t like him anymore,” Sam eyes him suspiciously and Blaine blushes.

“I was just asking, okay, I’m his friend, he’s all alone and I’m looking out for…”

“Hey! Hey, calm down,” Sam pats him on the back, “Just teasing you. Yeah he was there. But he left quite quickly. I guess he’s not really the party type.”

“That’s true,” Blaine says thoughtfully, and gets up so he can get dressed.

He feels something stuck to him. It’s an envelope on a string, which goes around his wrist.

Blaine and Sam look at each other.

Sam rushes to Blaine and snatches that envelope. Blaine tries to snatch it away, but is unable to, cause he is too short, so Sam reads out loud:

“Blaine, I hope to see you soon, so we can meet and talk about that Hogsmeade date you agreed to go to, Dave.”

“What?!” Blaine’s eyes widen, “I was drunk!”

“And you were doubting that he was gay, dude!” Sam laughs so hard he folds in on himself. When Blaine tries to snatch the letter, Sam runs out of the room.

“My boy Blaine has got a date!!” Sam shouts for the whole Hufflepuff Common Room to hear, and Blaine facepalms, simultaneously blushing hard. This was not at all what he expected.


	3. Chapter 3

Blaine is in chess club. It is the club where he met Tina. Even though he does not particularly like wizarding chess, because of all the violence, the figures grow back quickly, so he learned to tolerate it for the sake of spending time with his Ravenclaw friend. Tina, when you got to know her better, turned out to be an amazing person with a rich inner world, and Blaine was constantly blown away by how much she knew. And her chess skills.

"Did you watch the first competition of the tournament, Blaine?"

"No, I, actually, went to show Kurt the castle."

"Who? Knight to F5," Tina effortlessly killed one of his pawns.

"Uh, Kurt, he’s one of the Beauxbatons boys," Blaine said, trying to sound casual.

Tina looked at him pointedly, but avoided saying anything. She was very tactful, and for Blaine it was refreshing after a lifetime of Sam and Brittany by his side. He pretended to look at the chessboard and consider his next move.

"Well, the first competition was a nightmare," said Tina thoughtfully.

"Oh, I caught a glimpse of it. A giant? Who does Figgins think we are? I was shocked. Do you still regret not getting in? Pawn to E7."

"Hm… I don’t know. When you are not competing, you feel like you could have done better than the actual contestants, you know what I mean? King to A3."

Blaine did not know what she meant. He was immensely grateful that he did not put his name in the Goblet of Fire and that nobody got killed yet, and that was it.

"Actually, I feel like only Quinn was able to finish it gracefully. Not a single blonde hair fell down from her head… How did she do it?"

"I bet it’s the veela charms," answered Blaine absentmindedly. He had no idea what his next move should be.

"Come on, Blaine, veela charms are not that powerful," Tina laughed.

"Really?" Blaine’s heart skipped a bit. 

"You should read History of Magic. Why does no one read it?"

"Wait. Tell me, how powerful they are exactly?"

"I don’t know, I’m not an expert, but I could do a research for you, if you want. I always thought that it is more a thing to do with an alteration of one’s chemical reaction to smell, more than anything. By the way, did you know that the Durmstrang students also have charms in their blood called dragon-paw? They give them added strength during stressful times, like when it is extremely cold or whatnot. I feel like Lauren from Durmstrang has a privilege in this competition."

"I didn’t know that, but good for her. That giant almost ripped out her hair!"

"Anyway, I wish I was out on the field instead of Santana. I always wondered how I would behave under such stressful circumstances."

"Tina, for once, I am glad that you are here and safe, and I do not have to worry for you," said Blaine earnestly, "However, I’m a little worried for Santana sometimes. She looked very frightened out in that field, also, she broke her wand. I think you would help her greatly if you shared some of the insights with her, some of your practical skills. She looks lonely and stressed. There is no need for house rivalries when the competition is so cruel. Solidarity. Love. Friendship. We all need to support our Hogwarts Champion."

"Blaine, you are such a sweet cupcake," Tina smiled at him adoringly, "Actually, I will think about it. I’m so intrigued by that giant’s tooth mystery. I will help her because I really want to solve it myself."

Blaine was really glad to hear that. He was also glad that Tina beat him with her next move and he did not have to think about chess moves anymore.

* * *

It was a beautiful late-autumn day and Blaine was walking to the orchard house.

On his way he was contemplating what Tina told him about the veela charms. He completely forgot about it, but actually he really should do a research on them. Maybe they are not that bad after all?

But lately he had no time at all, with constant Quidditch practices, avoiding Dave Karofsky around the castle, a lot of homework he had missed out on, cause he was not particularly diligent this semester.

Like this herbology project he had completely neglected and now needed to complete it alone in his spare time. He sighs.

All of a sudden he sees Kurt, who is reading a book on a stone bench near the Beauxbatons dorm tower. He has that perfectly styled hair, a silver brooch of an autumn leaf, another chunky scarf. How does he manage to look so composed for a teenage boy?

In that instant Kurt looks up and sees Blaine. He smiles a little and blushes. Or maybe it is just the effect of the cold autumn air on his cheeks? Blaine approaches him before his brain realizes what he is doing.

"Hey, Kurt! What are you reading?"

"Oh, it is just a muggle book… Adventures. Romance," he looks Blaine right in the eyes when he says it, and Blaine swallows a lump.

"Uhm… I thought. You know, I have this project I need to finish in the orchard. Why don’t you come with me? I feel like you haven’t been there before."

"Orchard?" Kurt tilts his head, not understanding.

"Yeah. Warmhouse. Garden. I don’t know how to call it. The place where all the plants are."

"Oh, sure. We have visited on our tour, but I wished to see more of it. I will be happy if you show me," Kurt smiled warmly and got up.

'How do I get myself in these situations?' thought Blaine to himself, 'These veela charms…' but the sound of Kurt’s lovely voice interrupted his train of thought.

"I congratulate you with the Quidditch victory, Blaine," Kurt said, when they were crossing the field in the last rays of the autumn’s sun.

"Oh, thank you," Blaine did not want to think about it, cause then he would have to think about that party, and then think about Dave Karofsky and how he needs to avoid him, cause he really does not want to go on any dates with the guy, "Did you go to the party?"

"Yes, Elliot brought me, but parties are not... for me, you know," Kurt shrugged.

"Is Elliot your best friend?"

"Not really. Elliot is nice to me, but he is three years older, so… Has other interests."

"Wait. Does that mean you’re a 4th year?" Blaine stops on his tracks.

"Yes. And you?"

"I’m 5th year. You just look so mature for your age. I thought you were older than me," Blaine actually devoted a lot of time to thinking about Kurt being older and more experienced and wooing him.

"No... Just taller," Kurt smiles.

"Hey! No height jokes allowed around me," Blaine shoves him playfully, and also smiles despite himself.

They get to the orchard quickly.

"There are all kinds of plants here, you can see for yourself. What kind of flowers do you like?"

They looked around. There were fresh roses, and succulents, and vines, and even a few cactuses. Blaine actually realized that he liked being here when no one was around. During class there was too much noise and excitement to really be grateful for all the beautiful plants.

"I know it is cliché, but I like roses," Kurt walks towards the roses and caresses a white one with his fingers, "My mother had roses in her...how do you say... Orchard? Garden. It reminds me of her."

"Are your parents both magical?" Blaine wonders if it is too impolite to ask Kurt about his mom. But he desperately wants to find out more about Kurt, about his life.

"No, my mom was a witch, but I do not remember her. She died when I was five. And my dad is a muggle, and never knew that she was magical. He found out only after her death… Poor dad," Kurt laughs breathlessly, "He had no idea how to... Deal with me. Raise me. He did not expect a magical child. Also a gay one. You cannot find two more different people than me and my dad. But then we were fine. I love him a lot."

Blaine’s stomach swoops at that word. Gay. Not that he had doubts. But the possibilities that hide behind that word. The sheer fact that Kurt trusts him enough…

"Well, my parents certainly did not expect a gay son either," Blaine says, as a way to build trust, and he catches the way Kurt quickly licks his lips, "But they learned to deal with it. Especially since my brother Cooper is a famous actor in the wizarding world, I guess they learned to deal with all the eccentricity in the family."

"Cooper…?"

"Anderson."

"Oh my god! He does all those commercials! For wands. And broom commercials."

"Yeah, the suggestive ones," Blaine can’t help but groan in embarrassment and roll his eyes, "All the girls love him. We cannot go to Diagon Alley without a crowd of fangirls around him," he wished they would stop talking about Cooper, "So how did you learn about all the magical things then?"

Kurt sat down on a chair near the roses before drawing a big breath and telling Blaine:

"My dad started going to a club for muggle spouses of wizards. They gave a lot of information. He tried so hard. Brought me pamphlets. Then he met Finn’s mom when the club went to visit the British... version. And they got married this summer. It is so strange to me. Muggle parents and me and Finn, their magical children."

Blaine remembered that Finn’s dad was a famous Auror, who died on mission. So his mom was a muggle. It must be so hard for muggle parents to raise magical children. He imagined what Kurt’s dad must have gone through, with learning that his late wife was a witch.

"Your dad sounds like an amazing person," Blaine smiles, trying to cheer Kurt up, "So it is like you now have a big brother too, I guess."

"Well," Kurt shrugs and sighs, he looks uncomfortable, "I wish. You know, Finn is still getting used to me. I feel like he does not want people to see... Us together... In public…"

"God, Kurt," Blaine feels his heart breaking for Kurt, "I’m so sorry. Maybe he is just…"

"Sorry, Blaine," Kurt’s eyes widen, "I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I don’t want to tell you so many of my problems. It’s just… You are the first nice person I met here. I remember on the first day we met, you told me “Welcome to Hogwarts” and it was so nice of you. I felt like this year is going to be okay."

Blaine’s heart starts doing somersaults in his chest. The Hufflepuff in him wanted to conjure a scarf for Kurt, and a blanket, and a sweater and cocoa and marshmallows and surround him with warmth and make friendship bracelets. He was using all of his might to restrain himself.

Instead, he just sat down next to Kurt and hugged him. And if there were tears in Kurt’s eyes, Blaine discreetly pretended he did not see them.

"So, can you show me your project then?" Kurt said, trying to sound like nothing happened, even if there was a small grateful smile in the corner of his mouth.

"Sure," Blaine smiled, and got up to get three succulents from a top drawer, "These are lucky succulents. We use their juices for some Potions in class, so we needed to grow them properly. When a flower appears on each of them, it means they become eatable, and, well, lucky. Mine still do not have them, because I forgot to water them. I will give them charmed water, and they will grow flowers in half an hour. My friend Tina told me to do this. I trust her. She’s smart."

Kurt laughed a little.

They talked more, and actually sat in the orchard for an hour, forgetting about the flowers on the succulents. It got dark quickly around them, so Blaine used a lumos spell to illuminate some of the magical cactuses so they would give off light. Kurt told Blaine that he feels like he does not belong anywhere. He feels like he missed out on a magic childhood, but does not fit in with the muggles too, and does not fit it with most people because of his sexuality. Blaine says that he understands that it must be painful, but he believes that people will love him for who he is, because he seems like an incredibly interesting person. He avoids looking at Kurt when he says it.

"What do you miss most about life in France right now?" asks Blaine to change the topic, when he finally remembers about the flowers on the succulents, and puts them away on the drawer with his name tag.

"Oh god, Blaine, the food! The food definitely," Kurt looks so French in that instant (whatever that means), that Blaine laughs. He feels that his cheeks are already hurting from so much smiling and laughing around Kurt.

"What kind of food, tell me? Because I’m a Hufflepuff. I love food," Blaine grins.

"Well, French food is rich in flavor. No offence, Blaine, but here everything is a little... Not flavored? Bland. It is mostly to fill your stomach. But not to taste and savor. There is no finesse, no added tastes. The herbs from Provance, the cheeses, the wine. My dad has a farm and a vineyard in France, I miss his wines."

"Oh man, you are probably suffering so much here, with all the greasy fish and chips, and those beans and sausages for breakfast," Blaine pats Kurt on the back, "I would propose to break in the kitchen, Sam does it often, but still, the elves there know how to cook only our kind of food, Kurt."

"I know, it kills me. Madame Cassandra July asked Figgins to disapparate for a few hours so she eat normal food in Paris. I’m not kidding you. I would do the same!"

"Seriously? This is just the funniest," Blaine laughed again, imagining the directress of Beauxbatons somewhere in a posh restaurant in Paris and finally sighing with relief at the fancy food.

Then Blaine thought about how much food meant to him. Food is comfort, security. It means sharing a meal with friends, with family. It means being happy. It is the warmth of grandma’s pies, and mum’s signature pancakes. Oh, if only he could bring some of the food Kurt likes to Hogwarts…

"Wait. Kurt!" Blaine’s eyes widened, and he grabbed Kurt’s hand in the heat of the moment, "I know just the way! Follow me."

* * *

"You have to be quiet now, okay?" said Blaine, and closed his eyes. He walked three times up and down the corridor concentrating only on one thought.

When he opened his eyes he saw a confused Kurt pointing at a door that wasn’t there before.

"But how?"

"Follow me, Kurt," Blaine opened the door, and indeed there it was.

A big round table served for two. French style. Oysters. Mussels. Smoked ham. A platter of cheeses. All kinds of sauces with fresh puffy bread. Gratin. Wine. Roasted salmon fillet seasoned with rosemary. Some kind of delicious chocolate fondant to top it all.

Kurt’s jaw dropped. He looked positively shocked.

"How did you do this, Blaine? This is incredible!"

"I know a few tricks about Hogwarts!" Blaine was so excited to see all of these plates full of refined food on the table, that he did not even care that the rest of the room was dim and there was a soft music playing in the background and it all looked like the most romantic and clichéd of dinner dates. Thank god there were no candles, because that would have certainly be the last drop to smash his vase of obliviousness.

Kurt was blushing.

"Come on, let’s eat! Didn’t you say that you missed the food? You will have to show me and tell me what it is though. I have no idea how to eat half of these things."

Kurt nodded a little, because he was lost for words. 

And if throughout dinner Kurt looked at him like he hanged the moon, if Kurt looked attractive when he was biting at the soufflé, if Kurt looked gorgeous with the glass of wine in his hand, Blaine pretended he did not notice.

* * *

Blaine sneaks into his dorm room way past curfew. He does not care at all that he broke like five rules.

Sam is there, already in bed, looking at him judgingly.

"Dude, it is midnight. I was worried! You could have sent me an owl. Where have you been?"

"Sam, I…" Blaine cannot help but smile, "I was with Kurt."

"Oh," Sam immediately perks up, "And what happened?"

"Nothing. Not much. We just talked. It was so great, you know! I feel such a connection with him. Even though he struggles a little with the language, I understand him so well! Because he is gay too. I know Brittany is my friend and she is queer and all, but I finally have a male friend who is gay, and he gets it all… No offence, Sam, you are my best friend, but it is so nice to make a friend who gets it, you know?"

"You said the word “friend” like five times, Blaine."

"That’s because we are friends."

"Well, I’m glad you have a new friend now. Just do not forget about me," Sam strikes a theatrical pose, which resembles a wounded dog, a sad widow and an offended maid all at the same time.

"Like I could forget about you, dork," Blaine throws a pillow and hits Sam right in the face. Sam hits the pillow right back at him, and Matt groans from his bed across the room to stop with all the noise. Sam just throws a pillow right in Matt’s face.

And if later that night, when Sam is already snoring, Blaine takes out the picture they snapped together with Kurt in moving photography club and looks at Kurt smiling beside him, and then tucks that picture under his pillow, it still does not mean anything. At all.


	4. Chapter 4

Rumors about the second task in the Triwizard Tournament emerge quickly. The giant’s tooth gives way for a lot of speculation. Some say it hints to the fact that all the contestants will be left with no teeth. Some believe it has to do with scary creatures who have a mouthful of sharp fangs. Some are convinced that the task will be carried out when all of the contestants are asleep, as it has obviously something to do with dreams, because of the tooth fairy.

Blaine, even though he did not care much for this knowledge, knows exactly what it will be, because Tina tells him the next time they meet up in the library to study.

“So, we Alohomora’d the tooth. Pretty easy guess, but Santana did not think of doing it. Also she has no wand, so she has to use mine. And it turns out, the next task will be carried out in the swimming pool.”

“What? Swimming pool?”

“Yes. The hidden swimming pool,” whispers Tina, looking around furtively.

“I had no idea we had a swimming pool in Hogwarts!” Blaine exclaims, and then immediately shushes himself, because the librarian is giving him one of her looks. He shakes his head apologetically.

“A hidden swimming pool. It is all written in History of Hogwarts! Why does no one read it?” Tina says one of her cliché lines, smiling, while Blaine rolls his eyes.

“Where is it?”

Images of Kurt in swimwear and sunglasses start floating before Blaine’s eyes before he can stop himself. He blushes, tries to will those thoughts away. Why do all his thoughts seem to revolve around Kurt…

“In the dungeons, near the Slytherin common room. It is a swimming pool with a glass wall that gives perfect view of the lake’s creatures. I am preparing Santana for the worst.”

“And what will be the worst?”

“You want to know everything, don’t you?” Tina smiles. Blaine notices that she is much more cheerful than she has ever been before these days… She has been spending a lot of time with Santana… Could it be…?

“I just want to know what your brilliant mind deduced from all this,” he says with a charming smile of a true gentleman.

“Oh, well. I think it has something to do with the Kraken from the lake. They will probably have to fight it in the swimming pool. It is the deadliest creature there, and I told Santana as much.”

Blaine cannot imagine how a student is supposed to defeat the giant Kraken. He cannot even imagine the actual size of the giant Kraken. He hopes that the contestants will be careful. 

“I really hope that no one gets hurt in this battle, it seems pretty dangerous” he says sincerely.

“Me too, Blaine,” Tina sighs, “I’m worried for Santana, she is cunning, but it is not enough against such a monster.”

If he and Tina had the same relationship he has with Sam, he would already be teasing her for talking about Santana for half an hour. Instead, he nudges her softly.

“Hey, you are getting pretty close with her,” Blaine says with a simple warm smile.

“Yeah, well,” Tina tucks her hair behind an ear, looks uncharacteristically flustered, “We’re indeed getting on pretty good, Blaine.”

“I’m glad that you got a friend out of all this Triwizard Tournament,” Blaine picks up his parchment and his feather and caresses it without thought. 

“Yeah? I’m glad about you too,” Tina says, and hides behind her book. Blaine does not ask her what she means. Nor does he deny it.

* * *

Lately, Blaine seems to be running into Kurt everywhere. Not that he minds, but it is hard to concentrate on anything, with Kurt being around him.

This time they meet by accident in the owlery, and Blaine decides that he does not, will not refer to it as “their” place, just because they had met there for the first time. Even though deep down he thinks that a secluded place with majestic birds seems pretty romantic.

“Oh hey, Kurt,” he says, when he enters the owlery and Kurt is there, petting a particularly pretty white owl.

“Hello, Blaine,” Kurt smiles.

“I just popped in to send a letter to my parents,” Blaine says, so Kurt will not think that he is being a giant stalker.

“I was… Admiring the owls,” the way Kurt says “owls” with a French accent is so charming that Blaine would like to record it. Wait. He is being a giant stalker…

“Aren’t they the best?” Blaine comes closer and pets the beak of the same owl that Kurt was petting. “Do not be afraid, you can pet it like this too, they like it.”

The owl nudges his fingers a little.

“You are good with animals,” Kurt says.

“Well, I’m a Hufflepuff,” Blaine shrugs, “I love animals.”

The owl takes this opportunity to fly and sit on Blaine’s shoulder, so he walks with her to the open window. Kurt follows closely. When the owl flies away, Kurt turns to him.

“Can you tell me something? If you are not in a hurry?”

“Not at all,” says Blaine, completely forgetting that he has a Divination class starting in five minutes, and he is in the opposite end of the castle.

“What does it mean being a Hufflepuff?” 

Blaine pauses for a minute, contemplating. It is like someone asking him what does it mean being Blaine, or being a human, or being gay.

“How do I explain this…” Blaine starts.

“I already understand that it means being very nice and cute, but…” Kurt says, half-nervous, half-joking. Blaine laughs, his stomach swoops a little.

“Yeah. Well, no. Are you familiar with the housing system at Hogwarts?”

“Finn told me a little. But not much. Basically that Gryffindor is the best.”

“I thought so,” Blaine rolls his eyes, “Do not listen to him. Gryffindor is home to the courageous. Slytherin, you know, our champion Santana is from Slytherin, means they are ambitious and cunning. Ravenclaws are creative and smart. But that does not mean all the students are like this. Sometimes you just want to develop these qualities and you get into these houses, you know.”

“So what does Hufflepuff mean?” Kurt asks again.

“Basically, that I love food,” Blaine shrugs. He feels uncomfortable blowing his own horn.

“Come on!” Kurt shoves him with a smile.

“Okay okay,” Blaine returns the smile, “Well, I’m loyal. And I value friendship and honesty most of all.”

He looks at Kurt in that moment. He wonders if there are really veela charms in his blood. If he really is deceitful. He wishes with all his heart that this was all for real between them. The conversation that comes so easily, despite everything, and the connection he feels, and how everything around Kurt blurs into the background…

“Those are great traits. What house do you think I would go to in Hogwarts?”

“Oh… I do not know. I feel like you are all of those things!”

“Oh.”

Blaine’s eyes widen, realizing what he implied: that Kurt is courageous, and smart, and loyal, and ambitious and everything at once. Smooth compliment right there. He backpedaled quickly into joke territory.

“Actually, I wish to have you in my house so I can feed you stuff in the common room…” Blaine bites his lips, avoids Kurt’s gaze. Somehow, he made it worse, “Sorry, that sounds creepy.”

Kurt looks at him completely starstruck.

“No, it sounds… lovely,” he says quietly.

There is that tension that Blaine cannot mistake for anything else. He looks into Kurt’s eyes, which are so beautiful, just staring in that aquamarine sea…

It would be so easy to come a little closer...

Wait, his class! Blaine rubs the nape of his neck, mumbles an apology and leaves as fast as he can. He feels his heart drumming loudly in his chest, he feels like the whole castle can hear it resonating. Oh god…

When Blaine gets to class, ten minutes late, he realizes he still is clutching the letter he was meant to send to his parents.

* * *

Quidditch.

Now that is something to care for to get his mind off Kurt. This time he is just a spectator, because the next match is between other teams.

He does not mind. Following a game and distracting himself is much better than thinking about Veela charms and Kurt, and how Kurt makes him feel, and what if he just made it all up in his head cause he is fifteen and never dated or kissed anyone? But Kurt’s eyes are just something else. And his voice. And his cute laugh…

“We got ourselves some big trouble,” Sam looks into the binoculars at the furious attacks of the Ravenclaw team.

“Yeah…” Blaine sighs, looking past the field at the Castle, and the two dormitory towers that Figgins conjured for their foreign guests. “Big trouble.”

* * *

Blaine is in origami club with Rachel.

Rachel is, by far, the weirdest person that Blaine has ever met, but Blaine does not mind. Her latest passion is origami. Technically, there are only two of them, since no one else came to origami club, even though Rachel has sent a special delivery owl to all the prefects in Hogwarts to spread the news about a new club. No one cared, as usual. Maybe because Rachel would usually send at least a dozen owls every month for the smallest, pettiest reasons.

She discovered a book of spells on how to conjure origami and how to fold them with magic, and then, how to make them live, and decided to make a club devoted to the art of origami.

Blaine thought that it was brilliant. Sure, the creatures did not live long, the magic evaporated, but you could make a tiny parrot and make it fly. That was pretty adorable.

“It never ceases to amaze me how powerful spells can be. Don’t you think?” he says, looking at the tiny parrot, that came to life. 

“Spells can make it or break it.” Rachel agrees, “Magic should never be underestimated.”

“There is so much beauty in the world. I love these origami thingies,” Blaine sighs, “I just want people to use them for the greater good.”

Rachel looks at him. Blaine does look like an open book most of the time. It is not hard to guess what he's thinking about.

“Are you still thinking about Kurt?” she asks.

He does not reply, but he does not have to.

Rachel shakes her head, “I just don’t get it, Blaine. You can obviously see that it is his magic that influences you. You’re losing control over yourself.”

“How do you know that it’s not true… How…” he tries to argue weakly, but she firmly sends a spell on her origami lion, making it roar.

“Does your heart beat a million times faster when you see him?”

“Yes.”

“Do all your thoughts turn to mush?”

“Oh god, yes.”

“Can you feel your palms sweat?”

“So much,” Blaine hides his face in his hands from embarrassment.

“You see!” Rachel exclaims triumphantly, “It messes with your physiology. Just like a potion or a spell would.”

Blaine’s parrot crushes into the desk and tears into tiny pieces. Rachel is right. So why does this only make him feel worse?

* * * 

Christmas break is fast approaching, and Blaine could not be more grateful. He will get home for a few weeks and relax after this busy semester. He cannot wait to clear his head, just stay with his parents and Cooper, gorge down on sweets and watch the Wizarding Channel. There will be no school, no mixed feelings for Kurt, no Dave Karofsky stalking him, no upcoming Quidditch to worry about, just plain relaxation time.

On the last day of class, traditionally, all the Hufflepuffs celebrate together in the common room. Christmas is a very special holiday for a Hufflepuff, obviously.

With Sam on his right, Brittany on his left, Blaine is having a laugh with all of his housemates, having tons of food and playing some fun wizarding boardgame, with exploding cards. You have to reply to a question that another person asks, but if you lie even a tiny bit, the card will explode in your hands. 

The students are all wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, and lots of them have Santa hats on, and a few have reindeer noses. It feels like Christmas already. 

“Blaine, it is your turn to get more food,” Sam says halfway through the evening, “The elves do not want to see me anymore. When they see me, they refuse to give me any food. They say that I singlehandedly ruin all of their cooking plans.”

“Okay, okay,” Blaine says, laughing, and already getting out of the common room. Whistling to himself, he walks down the corridor to the kitchen, and when he turns around the corner he runs into someone.

Of course it’s him. Who else could it be? It was as if destiny was playing a cruel joke on him.

“I’m sorry, oh, hey, Kurt,” Blaine looks up and feels himself getting tongue-tied.

“Excuse-m… Oh. Blaine! I’m sorry too. I was just… Lost,” Kurt says, and he looks genuinely terrified in that moment.

“Where were you going?” Blaine says, immediately forgetting about his main quest to gain food and focusing on the side quest: find out why does Kurt look so uncomfortable.

“I was in the Gryffindor tower, just planning with Finn how we will travel home for the holidays… And then some of his friends came, and he basically threw me out. Told me to get back to my tower and we will talk later. And I just… Can’t find the exit.”

Kurt seems extremely sad and embarrassed, and Blaine’s heart is breaking for him.

“How long has it been?” Blaine asks, sensing the worst.

“A couple of hours…”

Blaine’s heart squeezes painfully in his chest. Kurt has been left wandering here for hours…

“Hey, do you want to come with me instead?” Blaine asks, and takes Kurt’s hand on an impulse, “I know a shortcut.”

Fifteen minutes later he and Kurt are carrying a lot of food into the Hufflepuff common room. Everyone greets them with cheers, as if they are war heroes.

“Merlin’s beard, you even managed to get Butterbeer!” Sam looks ecstatic, “But how??”

Blaine looks smug.

“It’s all Kurt! The elves could not disappoint our foreign guest. I told them he has never tried Butterbeer, and they gave us lots!” Blaine winks at everyone, while Kurt shyly looks at the crowd.

“You have to bring him more often,” Brittany puts a ridiculous Santa hat on Blaine’s head, then makes an inviting gesture at Kurt, so he can sit near her. Blaine sits down on his other side, and the couch gets even more uncomfortable, but at least they are sitting close by.

While people eat and drink and play the game, Blaine has a chance to talk to Kurt.

“Isn’t this better than sitting alone in your tower?”

“Yes, Blaine. Thank you, really…” Kurt starts.

“I didn’t say it so you could thank me. I’m just… Happy to show you what it means being a Hufflepuff, you know? We are like family.”

“I can see that,” Kurt smiles, and Blaine knows he did the right thing.

“What are your plans for the holidays?” Blaine asks.

“We will be in France, our family, with Finn. Some awkward family dinners. I’m just happy that I will see my dad soon.”

“Oh! Me too! And my mom, and my brother,” Blaine says, and he knows that he sounds like he’s three, but that’s what he genuinely feels like.

“Blaine’s turn!” Sam shouts right in his ear, and passes him an exploding card.

“Okay!” Blaine says, “I will tell the truth, and nothing but the truth!”

“Tell us if you like someone at the moment?” asks Brittany, while looking like an innocent angel, that she is absolutely not, and Blaine feels Kurt tense up next to him.

“I like… You guys! And my family. And all of the extracurricular clubs I’m in. And also food, and board games. And I like Quidditch, and this castle, and…”

“Blaine, stop rambling, she said ‘someone’! We all know what Brittany meant by that!” Sam ruffles his hair, and Blaine tries to jokingly punch him, laughing,

“Sam, you know perfectly well, that I don’t like-” and the card explodes fast as lightning right in his hand.

Everyone begins to tease him, and Blaine denies everything, laughs, fires back at the jokes like he’s used to do. But thankfully, with all the people around, the excitement can evaporate as quickly as it began, so Blaine grabs at the opportunity to turn the focus away from himself. He gives another card to Kurt.

“Kurt, tell us about your best memory that you made here in Hogwarts,” Sam asks, before Blaine can open his mouth. 

Everyone gets silent, anticipating a story.

“That's easy... Becoming Blaine’s friend,” Kurt says simply, and the card stays intact.

Blaine feels his stomach swoop, and a sense of gratitude wash over him. He feels like time stops for a second, and deep appreciation sets in inside of him. Now it is so close to Christmas, and a whole semester has already passed, however, it did not pass in vain, as he managed to make someone feel a little bit less lonely, a little bit better, and that was not just someone, but Kurt, extraordinary Kurt.

As the general mayhem once again gets away from them, Blaine whispers quietly to Kurt:

“Merry Christmas, Kurt.”

“Merry Christmas, Blaine.”

They smile at each other, and Blaine realizes that he does not want to spend his holidays not thinking about Kurt. He simply won’t be able to.


	5. Chapter 5

Christmas break comes and goes in an instant, like it usually does.

Blaine gets back to Hogwarts with new hopes, motivated to study harder this semester, and also shine on the Quidditch field, bringing victory to the Hufflepuff team. His family is proud of his Quidditch accomplishments, especially Cooper who was once team captain of the Gryffindor team. It was nice to spend a few evenings talking about Quidditch with Cooper, and eating mom’s delicious food, and having a laugh with his dad. But now it was time to go back to Hogwarts.

The first few weeks Blaine is swept with assignments, clubs, prefect duties, and Quidditch practices. Also, his free time was mostly devoted to the nibble-detecting-spell that Sam and he were trying to create. Basically, it was a spell designed to find out who of your roommates is hiding snacks from you and detect them in the room. Blaine thought it was pretty useful, even though he once again did not have the heart to tell Sam that they were probably infringing the privacy law with such a spell. Not to mention that it was technically stealing. However, it was nice to spend quality time with his best friend nonetheless.

Today is the day of the Second Tournament.

Blaine is quite excited when they announce that the competition will be held in the dungeons. As a prefect, he was also asked to arrange the hallways and corridors so the visitors would not get lost on their way to the hidden swimming pool, so it is nice to hear that Tina had been right and her prediction about the swimming pool fight was true.

He walks with Sam in the bustling crowd to the place, and sits on a giant bleachers-like staircase made of stone, the swimming pool being underneath them. On the other side of the swimming pool there is a glass panel overlooking the lake, which kind of looks like a gigantic aquarium. The place looks grotesque, but entrancing nonetheless. Blaine can imagine a Slytherin kid sneaking here at night to meditate, just looking at the fish and algae, thinking about life and death and everything in between. It was not his kind of thing to do, but Blaine could understand the feeling of calmness that comes from observing the fish.

Looking over at the stairs filling up with students and professors, he spots Kurt in the crowd, his blue scarf unmistakable. Blaine’s heart starts beating a tad bit faster. He has not seen Kurt in so long! He did not bump into him in the castle, did not see him anywhere. He has missed Kurt during this short time… Should he save a sit for him, or maybe invite him to sit nearer?

Suddenly a big figure obscures his view, and Blaine raises his head to see Dave Karofsky grinning at him.

“Hi, Blaine. Are you looking for someone?” he asks, with the voice of a hunter who has finally spotted his prey.

“Hi,” Blaine replies, a little bit taken by surprise, having no idea how to respond. He indeed felt like he was finally caught.

It has been literally months, but Dave Karofsky was quite insistent. Blaine has taken different routes to class so Dave would not see him, and made sure to eat his dinner quicker or steal some food from the kitchen with Sam, whenever he knew that the Durmstrang dinner was at the same time with theirs. During Christmas break he completely forgot about anything to do with Dave. However here, he had no way to run.

“I’d like to invite you to Hogsmeade on Saturday, for a date.”

“Okay, sure,” Blaine says, blushing, because he is too polite to refuse.

“Great, see you in the courtyard at 10.”

Blaine does not even reply, too stunned that he had agreed.

“Was that for real?” Sam shouts with a victorious smile, when Dave leaves and sits with the Durmstrang crowd. He proceeds to gush about how Blaine finally has a date, and wasn’t that what he wanted for so long? A real date with a boy who likes him? Isn’t it great?

Blaine forces a smile, then shrugs, not knowing what to say. Maybe it was nice to finally get a date… He looked over at Dave, and something cold settled in his stomach. Why on earth did he agree to that? Jesus, that was awful. He shouldn’t have… And now his first ever date was with this guy he feels zero attraction to. He is leading Dave on, just because he’s too polite to refuse. And he’s ruining Sam’s excitement too, Sam, who has been rooting for him for so long.

As they signal the start of the tournament, Blaine’s train of thought gets derailed, because the lights are suddenly off, and huge torches on the wall erupt with fire. The crowd ohhs in awe. Now this place looks more like the fighting arena it is, rather than a meditation spot.

Illuminated by the fire, Blaine spots Kurt a few rows away, sitting by himself.

“Ugh,” he mutters, because everything is going wrong, everything is not like he wanted it! He would rather be going on a date with Kurt, despite all those Veela charms, he would rather sit near him and keep him company, or even invite him to sneak away, like they did during the first competition. Instead, he will go on a date with a Durmstrang guy. Why is he such a mess… “Why?!” he says out loud.

Tina suddenly appears on his other side. She was obviously helping Santana backstage and now was taking her place in the audience.

“I know, this competition is disgusting,” she said, thinking Blaine’s whining was directed at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I feel like they invented it just because we have three witches as contestants. They will have to fight in swimsuits.”

“Won’t it get cold?” Blaine wondered aloud, feeling quite chilly himself, clad in his heavy robes and scarf.

“Blaine, you are too precious,” Tina laughs, as the competititon starts and the three witches come forward wearing nothing but swimsuits.

The crowd roars, especially its male part.

“Did you know about this?” Blaine asks, a little bit uneasy from the sight of three girls in swimwear, showing off a lot of skin for such a cold auditorium.

“Yeah, Santana showed me the bikini choices,” Tina says, touching subtly the nape of her neck.

“Tina?” Blaine says, unsure if this is something that occurs regularly between girls or if he has to ask Tina about the meaning of it all.

“Blaine, just… Not yet,” Tina says mysteriously, and returns her gaze to the swimming pool.

Blaine tries to focus on it too.

They announce that each girl will fight separately; establishing the sequence by roll of dice, and each will have to cut off a tentacle from the creature.

Blaine shudders. He has not even seen the monster, but he is sure as hell that it won’t be happy to have a tentacle cut off from its enormous body. He can see Santana and Quinn shivering, but he does not know if it is from the cold or from the horror of it all.

Lauren from Durmstrang goes first, as she rolls out the biggest number.

She laughs and clasps her hands over her head, getting a roar of encouragement from the Durmstrang crowd.

Suddenly the glass panel overlooking the lake seems to open in half, as if by a spell, and a stream of water flows inside the pool, filling it up. Blaine sees something black coming with it too, and realizes that this creature, twice the size of a bear, is the Kraken. The glass panel closes fast behind it. The audience screams in the realization that this legendary monster is right here, right in front of their eyes. The Kraken takes this exact moment to violently release a tentacle towards the audience! There are loud screams, there is movement on the stairs, but the tentacle seems to bump into an invisible wall, as if something is preventing it from reaching into the audience and strangling someone.

Tina rolls her eyes.

“Of course there are charms. We are protected from it,” she says.

“Well, the champions certainly are not,” Blaine gulps, and looks over at Lauren, who is now jumping into the swimming pool. The water must be freezing, and yet she does not even shudder, taking out her wand and starting to fight.

Blaine feels helpless. Of course he is not particularly fond of this giant monstrous Kraken with a million tentacles, but once again he thinks that this competition glorifies fighting too much. Not only it damages the Kraken’s health, and there are probably not enough Krakens in the world right now, it does not teach anything but violence. Furthermore, the contestants are not protected in the least, and they also have to fight in swimsuits, which is kind of humiliating. If it were for Blaine, he would have certainly invented another kind of competition. Something that has to do with funny charms and beautiful magic.

“Wow, that was fast!” Sams exclaims on his right, clapping his hands, and Blaine returns his attention to Lauren, who has passed through the invisible wall and is standing proudly before the crowd, holding a big tentacle, which is still quivering.

“What… How?” Blaine asks.

“Dragon-paw,” mutters Tina in awe.

“What?”

“That magic I told you about! It is very powerful. All magicians from Durmstrang have it.”

Blaine stares at Lauren, who is enjoying all the roaring cheers, and sadness fills him in completely. If this is something dragon-paw can do, giving amazing resistance to cold and supernatural force, then Veela charms must be extremely powerful too.

He spots Kurt in the crowd, clapping politely, but without the enthusiasm of everyone else. Blaine has a sudden urge to get up and go over to him, invite him to go for a walk around the castle. Hogwarts is so beautiful at this time of year, with all the snow.

Suddenly Tina tugs at his sleeve.

“Look!”

Indeed, it is Santana’s turn. She is shivering like crazy, just having had a dip in the pool, and that water must be freezing. She attacks the Kraken with spells, trying to stun it, even though it grabs her in one tentacle and waves her around.

Some Durmstrang guys start laughing at the image, and Blaine’s heart fills with dread and disgust. How can anyone laugh at seeing a person so helpless? She is wearing almost nothing, in a cold pool, getting strangled by a giant monster, and people feel the need to laugh?

Suddenly she accios a giant torch with fire towards herself, and then throws it in the Kraken’s eye.

“Thank god she has my wand,” Tina whispers, she looks super nervous.

The Kraken momentarily loses hold on Santana, and she falls, taking the split second she has to cut another tentacle and run out of the pool zone. It does not look like the run of a winner. She just looks like someone who barely escaped death and is on the verge of a break down.

“I will go check on her,” Tina exclaims, and rushes down the stairs, conjuring a big towel on her way down.

“This is all so messed up,” Blaine says, and Sam agrees, even though he already accioed some popcorn from the nearby Slytherin common room, which he detected with their munchies-detecting-spell. 

“Sam?! Why are you eating right now?” Blaine says judgingly.

“Just makes me less nervous,” explains Sam, shoving another handful in his mouth.

They both look at the pool, where Quinn, as white as a sheet of paper, tries to gather her courage and walk behind the protective invisible wall and into the boxing ring.

The Kraken is furious, having been blinded by Santana and without two tentacles, it is shaking horribly and bumping into the glass wall behind it, and the invisible wall, violently trashing from side to side. It looks like an angry lion, ready to escape from the cage and eat someone alive.

Madame Cassandra July hugs Quinn tight, and tells her something that makes Quinn make up her mind. She resolutely runs into the ring, shouts some spells, trying to dodge away from the tentacles, but the Kraken almost instantly pushes her off the edge of the pool, and she falls down into the freezing water. In an instant, the water colors red with blood. When Quinn does not emerge in a few seconds, some girls in the crowd start screaming.

Blaine sees that Kurt jumps up on his feet.

Something is definitely not right.

* * * 

“What happened to her? How is she?” Blaine immediately asks Tina, who comes to sit near him at the dinner table, having just arrived from the hospital wing.

“It’s not looking good,” Tina says, shaking her head. “I was over at Santana’s bed, making sure she had her tranquilizing potion. But I could hear everything that was going on near Quinn’s.”

Blaine and Sam, and everyone near them scoots closer to listen.

“She broke her neck... She could have died! If it wasn’t for Madame Pilsbury, who gave her a reviving potion right near the swimming pool… Well, they are transporting her back to France today. She will get treatment in a proper magical hospital, since her nerves, bones, tissues are all damaged. She has lost a lot of blood. Madame Pilsbury cannot do much right now, but she did all she could. Figgins is working on an apparating channel. The whole Beauxbatons delegation was there, all her friends, they were shocked and devastated.”

“What about the Tournament?” asks Rachel, who actually scooted closer as soon as she heard that people were gossiping. Blaine cringed at how untactful she was. Who cared about the Tournament at this point? It was lucky that Quinn was even alive… Kurt must be shocked and scared for his school’s champion. Blaine did not know if she and Kurt were friends, but he must’ve known her somehow...

“They will have to elect a new champion,” Tina says, but Blaine is barely listening.

“I wish the other schools would have come here without having all this fighting,” he says to no one in particular. It would have been nice to have classes together, learn new spells from each other, just talk… When no one replies to him, as they are all engaged in theories about champions and the last tournament, Blaine wishes that Kurt would be near him. Kurt would understand.

* * * 

Saturday comes fast, and Blaine spends all Friday night just playing some wizarding board games with Sam and Brittany. This one is a game where you need to explain something, but you can only use spells to draw it. Blaine fails badly every time, cause he is bad at drawing, but at least Sam’s guesses are hilarious and they are having a good laugh.

“Aren’t you excited for the date? We should pick something for you to wear,” Sam asks, when he guesses a particularly ugly ‘kiss’ that Blaine has drawn, that resembles more a dying rat somehow.

“Uh… No,” Blaine mutters.

“But Blaine, you always wanted to have a proper date with a guy,” Brittany echoes something that Sam has told him before.

“I’m just… Not really attracted to him,” Blaine says, shrugging.

“Maybe he has a great personality,” Brittany says, “That is what I say to myself when I’m making out with someone who is ugly.”

“And hey, he’s an international Quidditch champion!” Sam says, “You gotta get his autograph at least. So you can show it to your grandchildren, and say that you have dated a star!”

“That’s what you would do,” Blaine grins.

“Proudly!” Sam exclaims, and they all laugh. Blaine’s friends always manage to make him feel better, and he actually does. Surely, he does not even know this Dave guy. He has been quite intense, following him around the castle, and asking him on a date the first time they ever met, but hey, Blaine had no experience in these type of things. Maybe he indeed was nice, or funny, and Blaine would have a good time. Anyway, he will not have to do anything he does not want to do.

The next morning he picks out a pretty yellow bowtie that matches the hem on his robes, and makes his way to the courtyard, where Dave is already expecting him.

Dave is holding a rose, and Blaine momentarily thinks that it is kind of sweet, before he shoves it into Blaine’s hand, and Blaine gets pierced by a thorn, and has to quickly remove the wound with a spell. Dave does not even notice, too intent in making his way towards the carriages.

‘Maybe he’s just nervous. It should be endearing…’ Blaine thinks to himself, sighing, and follows him to the carriage.

* * *

They sit in the Three Brooms, a place that is not particularly suited for dates, in Blaine’s opinion. It is loud and everyone is drinking Butterbeer. Some gnomes are playing darts. He would have preferred the romantic café on the other side of the road, with hot chocolate and sweets, but maybe that was too girly for a guy like Dave.

But as the date progresses, it only gets worse.

It has been half an hour, and Dave has been going on and on about himself this whole time. He has not asked Blaine a single question, just grinning and talking over him the whole time.

Blaine concentrates on his drink, a strong black Butterbeer that Dave has ordered without asking him.

The first time that Blaine stares too long at his own drink, Dave touches his arm, as a way to pull back the attention towards himself.

Blaine smiles politely. He tries to ask about Bulgaria and Durmstrang, some questions that genuinely interest him. But Dave is talking about his Quidditch matches, who were his opponents and how many points he scored for the team.

Blaine looks at the big clock on the wall, and immeditaly feels Dave’s hand on his back.

It is immensely weird.

He shrugs it away, trying to shrink as little as he can.

Shouldn’t those touches feel nice? Instead, they bother him immensely.

He does not feel nice at all. He fake-smiles at Dave, trying to appear like he is listening.

“Look, sorry, this is not working out,” Blaine says, after another twenty minutes of this torture.

“What do you mean?” Dave says, a little menacing. His hand flies back to Blaine’s arm, grabbing him.

“I just… You’re not what… I’m looking for,” Blaine tries to say, highly intimidated.

“I bought you a drink.” Dave says, as if that means that he’s allowed to do whatever he pleases.

“I’m just going to go,” Blaine says, trying to get as far away as he can from Dave’s grip.

He storms out of the pub, but Dave is following him close. He forgot his outer robe, and it is cold, since it’s the middle of winter, and he turns around to go back, but Dave is walking towards him, obviously annoyed.

“You agreed,” he says, and grabs Blaine by the arm, as if he is a naughty schoolboy who needs to be disciplined.

“Hey! What are yo-” Blaine feels immense pain shoot up his arm, so deep he nearly faints.

He manages to grab his wand, like he learned in DADA and yell a spell at Dave, making him bounce back.

Jesus… Did he just… Attack someone…

“What are you doing?” the passerbys gather round him, looking at him judgingly. Someone helps Dave get up, he is not hurt, just stunned.

“Hey, that’s our guest from Durmstrang.”

“Why are you attacking him?”

“That’s Dave Karofsky!”

“And I thought Hufflepuffs were friendly…”

Blaine accios his outer robe from the pub, quickly grabs it, and runs away, before even more people can gather round. His arm still hurts badly, and he realizes that grip must have left him some bruises.

If Dragon-paw is this powerful…

Blaine’s heart squeezes, and he wants to cry. This is not at all what he wanted his first date to be like. He unpins the rose from his chest, and throws it into the snow, hurrying towards the castle.


	6. Chapter 6

After the disaster that was his first ever date with a boy, Blaine is really feeling down. Rumors spread in the castle that he is not a real Hufflepuff, as he has attacked a guy twice his size, and just ran away. Some people have been looking at him as if he’s extremely rude and weird. 

Blaine does not care about the rumors per se, he knows the truth of what had happened, but he just feels hurt and betrayed. Mostly because of himself, for giving Dave a chance, when there was obviously something wrong with him, since he gave off a weird vibe from the start.

“I’m obviously not ready for dating,” he says to Sam one day, when they are walking to Quidditch practice.

“Blaine, that is a stupid thing to say,” Sam rolls his eyes, “There is nothing wrong with you! Of course you are ready for dating. It was just that Dave guy… He turned out to be awful. End of story. I actually feel bad now for being so annoying and trying to set him up with you.”

“Well, it’s not your fault at all. I just feel like right now, I need to stop thinking about romance altogether, so we can kick Ravenclaw’s ass in the next match.”

Sam shakes his head but does not reply.

That practice Blaine gives it all he has. He plays, concentrating only on the game, focusing on the snitch, chasing it around the field. It starts raining halfway through the practice, but he does not stop. His enthusiasm fuels the whole team, and after three hours Mike Chang pats him on the back and raises his hand to show him off as an example for the whole team.

When he finally lands, exhausted, he notices a lonely figure sitting on the bleachers. Sometimes people would come to watch the practice, especially first or second year olds who were dreaming of being part of the team one day, but no one usually sat in the rain in the middle of February. The figure conjured an anti-rain spell, in the shape of a lovely blue umbrella, but still. It must have been cold out there.

“He’s been there since the start,” Sam says softly to Blaine, “You should talk to him.”

After Blaine gets out of the dressing rooms, freshly showered and extremely tired, he sees that Kurt has been waiting for him.

“Hi, Kurt,” he says, immensely glad to see him.

“Hi… Blaine” Kurt says unsurely, not knowing if he’s welcome.

“Thank you for coming to see me practice,” Blaine beams, and Kurt’s shoulders visibly relax.

“Oh, not at all. I do not know how to ride a broom, so it is fascinating to me.”

“I should show you sometime! Hey, wanna go drink some hot chocolate? It’s kinda cold out there. I hope you didn’t freeze on those bleachers,” Blaine says, words coming out of his mouth before he can even process them, because he’s excited to see Kurt. Also because momentarily there is nothing that he wants in the whole world than having a hot drink with Kurt.

“I would love some hot chocolate,” Kurt smiles gratefully, “But I do not have much time today.”

Blaine leads Kurt to the castle and then makes his way to the Room of Requirement. He could have gone to the kitchen, but somehow, he wanted to be alone with Kurt, without the bustling noise of the kitchen to interfere. It has been ages since they saw each other and just talked. He missed Kurt, that much was true.

The Room of Requirement does not fail him this time either. It looks like a cozy café, one of those Blaine has always wished to go to on his first date. There were cushions, and all kinds of teas, nice big sofas, jazz music in the background. 

“Ah, I was hoping you could take me to this magical room again,” Kurt says quietly when they go in, taking in all the details of the interior. 

“I’m so tired I could just sleep for ages,” Blaine falls down on the soft sofa. Two hot chocolates appear in front of them on the table, “Anyway, why did you say you don’t you have much time today?”

“I… Well… Quinn is in a coma,” Kurt starts, but Blaine interrupts him.

“Gosh, Kurt… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. I’m so sorry for what has happened. It is completely awful. I just wish to apologize for this monstrosity on behalf of the whole school,” Blaine says to Kurt sincerely, scooting closer “No one should feel unsafe, endangered and… and so lost at the school. This competition is completely awful.”

“Blaine… You do not have to say sorry,” Kurt smiles, looking at him softly, “I think it is awful too. But it has to go on. It is the rules. If something stops, the Goblet of fire will punish everyone. So… We will have to choose another champion, the rules say so. So well, they are calling me to the Beauxbatons tower, there will be a meeting. I don’t know what they will say.”

“Right, well, I just hope that the last competition will be safe.”

“I’m just so sad for Quinn. We were not friends, but, you know, I still knew her.”

“I understand, Kurt. I just wish… I could do something, so this would stop. This whole idea is completely stupid,” Blaine says, having a sip of his delicious hot chocolate, enjoying the little melting marshmallows, “I just wish we could talk about something else, you know. How was your Christmas? I have missed you so much.”

Kurt blushes when he replies, “I missed you too.”

They proceed to talk about Christmas, their annoying big brothers, and spending time with family. A few hours have passed before Kurt actually remembers that he was supposed to be at the meeting. He’s flustered.

“I had to go back an hour ago…”

“I hope you will not get into any trouble,” Blaine says, suddenly worried for his friend.

“Me too,” Kurt shrugs, unsure.

“I hope so. Anyway, Elliot will definitely tell you what happened there,” Blaine says, half-laying on the sofa.

He’s sprawled on the cushions, and it’s so warm and nice. His muscles are sore from all the practice. The soft music is so soothing…

He seems to have fallen asleep on Kurt, because suddenly he realizes that it is dark in the fake windows on the Room of Requirement, and Kurt has long since finished his hot chocolate.

Oh my god, that was so embarrassing. He was totally laying on Kurt’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, I was just… Exhausted from the practice,” he says, flustered. Not there is something to be ashamed of, but this is Kurt… Was he really laying on Kurt’s shoulder?

“It’s okay, Blaine,” Kurt says with a small secret smile.

“Won’t you get in trouble for not going back to the tower?”

“Oh, who cares. I missed the meeting anyway. And it was nice to just sit here with you.”

They talk some more about Quidditch and Christmas traditions. Blaine loves making Kurt laugh and hearing his childhood stories. They talk about food and their favorite types of hot chocolate. At that Blaine’s stomach begins rumbling and he announces that it is probably time for dinner.

Even though it feels kind of sad to leave the perfect warm bubble of the Room of Requirement, they make their way together to the Great Hall.

“Will you sit near me tonight?” Blaine asks, before he realizes how cheesy that sounds.

“That would be nice,” Kurt says, still smiling from joy.

When they enter the Great Hall, everybody is already there, including the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. They hurry to sit together at the long table, confused as to why there is such a crowd. The international students usually had their meals at other times, because it was troublesome to accommodate everyone in the Great Hall at once.

Figgins steps forward and asks everyone for silence.

“As you probably know, an incident occurred at the last competition. Our esteemed guest Beauxbatons School’s champion Quinn Fabray is severely injured, and cannot compete further.”

The students emit a sympathetic murmur.

“But the competition should be held nonetheless, according to the rules and traditions of the Triwizard Tournament.”

He takes a dramatic pause, and Blaine can hear Kurt sigh near him.

“A new champion will be selected to represent the Beauxbatons school. Everyone’s name has been written and put in the Goblet of Fire for them.”

Blaine feels Kurt tense up beside him, as a cold shiver runs down his own spine.

“What does he… what does he mean everyone?” Blaine murmurs.

In what seems like centuries, the Goblet is unveiled once again, and a name is drawn.

Blaine cannot move, a bad feeling settling in his guts. Please, please, not him. Please, not him. Not Kurt.

Figgins clears his throat before announcing loud and clear.

“Kurt Hummel.”

There is dead silence in the hall, and the Beauxbatons students look among each other for Kurt. Almost imperceptible relief spreads on some of their faces, realizing that it was not them that were chosen.

“Kurt Hummel? Please come forward,” Figgins repeats, more insistently.

Blaine stares at Kurt in shock, and Kurt looks paler than he’s ever looked, his hands are shaking.

Blaine helps him stand up, and follows him for a few steps, before realizing that the whole school is watching them. Kurt walks shakily to the podium, trying not to show how scared he is inside. He holds his head up high.

A slow, uncomfortable clap spreads through the room, and Blaine remains standing, looking at Kurt with a mixture of pain and sorrow.

Kurt tries to act composed when he leaves the room, following Figgins and Madame Cassandra July out of the Great hall.

* * *

At about midnight, Blaine, who has been pacing up and down near the Beauxbatons tower, finally hears the heavy door open.

He rushes towards it, but then bites his lip in regret. It’s Elliot.

“Blaine, hi,” Elliot shrugs apologetically, knowing that Blaine was expecting someone else.

“Where is he? Can I talk to him?” Blaine asks. It has been a very long day for him, he has not eaten, and felt dizzy, the headache getting worse by the hour. But he did not care for a second, all he wanted to do, was to make sure that Kurt was okay.

He could not even begin to imagine what would the pressure of being elected feel like. He never wished it upon anyone, and now that he has seen how hard and cruel the tournament actually is, he could not believe that Kurt, gentle sweet Kurt would have to face it. Blaine would give anything in the world for it not to be true.

“Blaine, he is sleeping now. He was _tres_ tired, from the nerves and all. He talked to his father through the fire… uhm chimney thing? And… It has been a long day…”

“I just… Can’t I go inside?”

“You can try, but it will not let you. You know? Special design, so no one comes at the pretty Beauxbatons girls,” Elliot says apologetically, even though it is not his fault.

“Ugh,” Blaine feels so helpless. He just needs to hug Kurt, to make him know that he is going to be there for him no matter what. 

“He asked to give you this,” Elliot says, giving him a small piece of parchment, “He wrote this while his father was shouting something.”

“What?”

“His father was angry, very angry. Shouted about rules and angry at everyone, even the ministry of magic.”

Blaine nods. It must be hard for Kurt’s dad, since he is a muggle, to comprehend all of this, to comprehend why his son is in such a danger. He opens the note.

_Blaine, Elliot told me you are waiting outside. Thank you. You cannot know how grateful I am for you. But I have a lot going on right now, I need some space now. Do not wait for me in the cold, dark night. Go to sleep. I will see you soon hopefully. Kurt._

Blaine holds the note close to his heart. He sees that Elliot is already stepping inside the tower when Blaine’s mind is searching frantically for something, anything… he yells: “Wait! Please. Please wait a second.”

He blasts towards the orchard, having no clear intention of what he would grab there, just knowing that he needs to give something to Kurt, something special.

He returns with the project from last semester’s lessons.

“Please, Elliot, give this to him. Tell him… that I said… ‘Courage’.”

He is grateful that Elliot does not ask, and just nods, taking the small pot with the lucky succulent inside the Beauxbatons tower.

* * *

Everyone Blaine meets expresses their disbelief and frustration so emotionally to him, as if it was Blaine himself who has been elected into a deadly Tournament against his will. Well, judging by how Blaine has been moping around, he really looks the part. And it is very uncharacteristic of him to be so sad.

“I just cannot believe this happened,” Sam repeats to Blaine every day first thing in the morning, as if it was something he’d dreamed about.

“This is ridiculous,” Tina proclaims, smashing a big dusty book right in front of Blaine in the library, “I know it is in the rules, but oh my god! This is totally unfair. It makes no sense! Kurt is just a 4th year!”

“I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone,” Rachel says sincerely during prefect duties, “But I’m sure Kurt will handle that well.” Blaine just frowns at her, wishing they could talk about something else. The problem was not about Kurt handling that well, but the whole tournament being stupid and cruel.

The first time he sees Kurt after the election, he just rushes towards him and hugs him close. Everything else stops around them, and Blaine does not feel any kind of remorse. He just squeezes Kurt tight, trying to convey as much emotion as he can. Kurt hugs him back, as if he can relax for the first time in days, as if a great weight lifts off him, and even though Kurt is taller, and from the side it probably looks like Blaine is seeking his comfort, it is actually the other way round, and Kurt gently rests his head on Blaine’s shoulder. There is absolutely no awkwardness whatsoever.

And even though they do not say much to each other - what is there to say, at times like this? – and Kurt is being pulled away quickly by Madame Cassandra July, to some sort of training, Blaine is still immensely grateful for the encounter. It makes him feel like the bad things that have been happening gained a lightness to them, and it will be easier to live through this abhorrent state of events.

Indeed, this sudden election brings something good to the table too. Now Blaine seeks out Kurt every day, because he understands how much Kurt values his support. Whenever they cannot walk together through the grounds of Hogwarts, Blaine makes sure to send Kurt an encouraging note, or just small photo of something funny he made in photography club. The owl he uses, Pavarotti, grows so used to it, that it shows up on Blaine’s dorm’s windowsill every evening, expecting a letter and a treat. It gets to the point that Matt gets annoyed from all the owl feathers and poop, but Sam shushes all of his attempts to complain.

* * *

Blaine especially feels the need to support Kurt, after a couple of unpleasant incidents that happened after the election. 

The Daily Prophet highlighted that event in the wrong possible way, claiming that Kurt was ecstatic to have taken the place of a girl who broke her neck, almost as if he was ecstatic for her injury. Some other homophobic newspaper even wrote “All-girls tournament continues”, and other remarks about how no one would notice a difference, since Kurt seemed to be so pale and feminine. Blaine hated each and every one of those newspapers. They were not there to inform, but rather to incite gossip, cruelty. They fueled some sort of disapproving vibe that was growing in the walls of Hogwarts.

After only a few weeks Blaine understood that the people were murmuring not because they were dismayed at the situation, as he was, but because, apparently, Beauxbatons now had a bigger chance of winning with “fresh blood” and it being totally unfair that they could select a new champion.

Blaine was outraged. He first realized it in moving photography club, when he was editing a moving photo for Kurt, and overheard Chandler’s high-pitched voice at the next table.

“Who wouldn’t want to be elected for just one competition? You could just snatch the trophy and get eternal glory without all that work,” Chandler said to his friends, who all nodded in agreement.

“What did you just say?” Blaine immediately rose to his feet.

“Oh, hi, Blaine,” Chandler said nonchalantly, obviously enjoying that Blaine came closer and addressed him first in front of all his friends, which has never happened before.

“I asked you, what did you just say?” Blaine was losing his temper, and this did not happen easily, or, at all. Maybe that is why nobody registered the storm that was coming. They did not even know that Blaine was capable of getting angry.

“I said that, let’s face it, that Kurt guy got it easy, and it’s not fair. He just needs to nail the third task and that’s all, eternal champion.”

“Kurt did not put his name in the goblet of fire. Kurt got elected against his will. Kurt will risk his life for some stupid thing that does not even matter, and could get killed! And you’re saying he got it easy?” 

Blaine realized he was yelling, but he could not stop. Everyone was looking at him, from the other tables too. His hands were shaking and there were tears in his eyes, and Blaine felt awful for yelling, but he couldn’t help it.

“Why are you yelling at me?” Chandler seemed actually confused, and hurt.

“Because you’re saying hurtful, dumb things, Chandler,” Blaine said, trying to sound more gentle, but failing miserably.

Chandler felt attacked, and that made him raise to his feet too.

“Why are you getting so angry, Blaine, huh? That Kurt guy already bewitched you with his Veela charms?”

The paper in Blaine’s hands exploded, and some of Chandler’s friends shrieked. Blaine immediately realized that this has not happened since he was five or six, and unable to control his magic. Jesus… How…

Everyone was hurrying away from the classroom, whispering to each other quietly.

Some girl told her friend, staring directly at Blaine “… attacked a Durmstrang guy…”

At that, Blaine couldn’t stop himself, and kicked a desk, hard. People scurried away even quicker, and he remained alone in the classroom, with all the little photographs hanging around, feeling like the whole world was going crazy.

* * *

Blaine dreads the routine patrolling he has to do for his prefect duties, because he does not want to talk to Rachel about the Tournament and everything that happened. He thinks that he might tell her some things that he will regret, so that night he sets out for the patrolling with a heavy heart.

To his immense relief, Rachel has other things she wants to talk about, which turn out to be quite exciting.

“Blaine, I just heard… Some rumors about… The most exciting news!” she whispers in between portraits. 

“What is it?” Blaine is holding his lumos-ed wand, and looking at the corridor, he does not want to talk to Rachel at all. However, she seems quite excited, and her happiness spreads to him. He cannot stay very grumpy when the people around him are genuinely happy.

“The Spring Ball!” Rachel squeals, “The greatest Triwizard tradition is the Yule Ball, but this year they decided to organize it in spring.”

“I guess some traditions can be broken then,” says Blaine sarcastically, even though he is listening intently.

“Look, it is going to be great! There will be dancing, and everyone will be in formal attire, and it will be absolutely beautiful. As prefects, we will help with the setting up. Apparently Figgins will elevate one part of the wall, and the ball will take place half on the grounds beneath the sky, and half inside the Great Hall! There will be lights and flowers and dancing. Don’t you think it is great?”

The picture that Rachel was painting was not half bad. Flowers? Dancing beneath the stars? Why couldn’t they cancel the brutal competition and provide more cross-cultural activities like this one instead?

“This sounds nice, actually,” Blaine says.

“Anyone can invite anyone, and the champions will start off the dancing,” Rachel is chatting away, and Blaine’s heart starts fluttering with new hope.

Kurt is a champion now. Does this mean that he will have to be there? He will have to dance with someone? And he will no doubt look gorgeous in a nice suit and with his hair all done…

“It is a one in a lifetime opportunity for a dance like this, so it is better to think carefully who you want to go with,” Rachel says, tactfully avoiding saying Kurt’s name, even though it stays unpronounced there between them.

Blaine does not reply, knowing full well that he will refuse to go with anyone else, apart from Kurt. Kurt needs his support right now, and Blaine will provide it for him, and he will be immensely happy to do so.

* * *

It is finally time for the Quidditch match with Ravenclaw.

In the morning, Kurt meets Blaine and Sam near the Hufflepuff common room, as he said he would with his late-night owl, and walks them to the Quidditch field. It may not seem like much, but Blaine is immensely grateful for this small thing, because he always gets nervous before matches. He feels Kurt’s support, the same way he hopes Kurt feels Blaine’s and it is extremely helpful.

“Good luck, Blaine,” Kurt says when they arrive to the changing room, “And you too, Sam.”

“Thanks, Kurt,” they both tell him, and Sam rushes inside, quite obviously giving Blaine and Kurt time to talk some more in private.

“I will cheer for you, Blaine. I know you will win!” Kurt says simply.

“Okay. Have fun! I hope I don’t disappoint,” Blaine says, and watches Kurt go.

“You never disappoint,” Kurt nods and smiles. 

He waves at Blaine from the staircase, and Blaine lingers a few moments before going inside the changing room.

As he flies on the field, the crowd cheering for him, Blaine spots Kurt sitting near Elliot, and just knowing Kurt supports him, gives Blaine plenty more courage to search for the snitch.

A good half hour passes, and Blaine still has no luck seeing the little golden ball. Thankfully, the Ravenclaw seeker has no luck as well, so Blaine does not worry too much yet. As he flies around the field, looking for the ball, Blaine’s mind gets clouded with thoughts. He thinks about all the comments he has heard about Kurt in the last weeks, and about all the unfairness and stupidity of the tournament, and also about the compulsory violence. These thoughts rile him up quite quickly, and it is not long before he remembers the whole incident with Chandler and how mad he had been back then. Suddenly, he sees a golden speck right near Sam’s ear, on the opposite end of the field. It’s there! With the rage still fueling him from the inside, he boosts quickly over there, and before his Ravenclaw opponent can even realize what is happening, catches the snitch flawlessly mid-air. The crowd bursts into cheers, and he hears Mike Chang shout in excitement. The victory is theirs!

After Blaine showers and changes at the speed of light, he rushes out of the changing room, and indeed, Kurt is there, waiting for him. Blaine totally sprints on him, hugging him close. Just like the hug they have shared before, this one comes on an instinct, and it is too good to overthink. Blaine feels the soft material of Kurt’s sweater, and the nice skin of his cheek close to him. Oh, well…

When they part, too soon for Blaine’s liking, he suddenly realizes that Kurt has been holding a bouquet in his hands.

“There are for you, for your victory,” Kurt says, blushing a little bit.

People are passing them by, looking curiously, but Blaine does not even notice them. This is probably the first time someone has given him flowers, and he is too stunned. He suddenly remembers the rose that Dave has given him, and recalls that date with a heavy heart. But these flowers are not for a date. They are to celebrate his victory. And they are so pretty and smell amazing.

“Kurt… You should not have… They’re so beautiful.”

Blaine is so entranced with that special bouquet, looking at all the different flowers that match so perfectly, that is why probably he does not notice Sebastian smirking behind Kurt’s back. 

“Honey, it’s not worth your effort, Blaine does not put out,” Sebastian shouts, as his Slytherin friends cheer at him, “Better send me an owl if you feel like spending a good time.”

Someone gives him a high five, a whole crowd snickers at them and casts glances at Blaine, obviously judging him, and Blaine turns bright red.

“Put out? Put out what? What does it mean?” Kurt looks genuinely confused. He looks over at Sebastian, feeling embarrassed. He does not even know who that is. But lately, everyone has been feeling like they knew Kurt and could randomly shout things at him.

“It does not mean anything Kurt,” Blaine did not know that his skin could get any redder. He is so humiliated and embarrassed, he wants to get away from there as fast as possible.

Kurt notices his discomfort in a second. He looks Blaine in the eyes.

“I do not care what that boy said, Blaine. I think you are great. And you did well on the field!”

“Thank you,” Blaine feels so much better at Kurt’s purity. At least language barriers could help him get out of awkward situations.

“And I’m spending a good time with you,” Kurt says, when they both go to the castle, and Blaine feels like his heart is beating a million times faster in his chest.

At least he has such a great friend in Kurt.

He invites Kurt over to the Hufflepuff Common Room to celebrate, and this time it is so much better than the last one. Mostly they hang around the sofa, eating food, while Sam and the other boys go crazy with all the partying.

“Oh, I really need to get a few pictures of this,” Blaine laughs, when he sees that Sam is doing his usual party trick - conjuring donuts, so they make up a long big chain of donuts, “I’m going to go grab my camera,” he says, getting up from the sofa.

“Okay,” Kurt says.

“Hey, I never showed you my dorm room,” Blaine says, and with a gesture invites Kurt to follow him. He totally misses the glance that Brittany and Sam share at that moment.

It feels so quiet in there, after the bustling on the common room, with the music and food and drinks and people going crazy. It’s actually comforting, how quiet that is.

“I see that you, Hogwarts people, are very serious for sports,” Kurt says, smiling. 

“Oh, we do,” Blaine laughs, and that points towards his bed, “That is my bed… I mean, my, you know, my part of the room.”

Suddenly he realizes how awkward that is. Did he really just invite Kurt to sit on his bed? How does he get into such situations…

“I know this is your bed, Blaine. It has all the photos there,” Kurt says, and actually goes to sit on Blaine’s bed, looking intently at the moving photos, which are hanging from the roof of the bed.

Blaine comes closer, and sits beside Kurt too.

“Yeah. That’s me as a kid. Flying a broom. And that is Cooper.”

“Just like the commercials,” Kurt whispers.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Kurt says, then asks, “Who is that?”

Blaine proceeds to show Kurt pictures of his family, and his childhood pictures, and his family vacation pics, and a few pictures of things he really likes, from speedy brooms, to the Scissor Wizards concert he went to once, to others. Turns out, he has quite a collection.

“It is nice that you have so many pictures, all of your history right here, close to you,” Kurt says.

“It is, it gives me support, I guess,” Blaine says. They are sitting so close, and the music is so loud outside, but here it is quiet, and it reminds Blaine at that time they were in the owlery, and Kurt was staring at him, and everything was happening so fast… 

Was it really happening because Kurt was bewitching him, just like Chandler said? Like Rachel was thinking all along? Blaine was so bad at romance, like his first date has shown, he did not know anything anymore. He just knew that Kurt was nice, and it was incredibly amazing to have him near, as his friend. He was holding on that knowledge for dear life. Nothing else mattered for now.

“I was thinking about something, Blaine,” Kurt says, looking at the flowers that he gave to Blaine earlier, now standing neatly in the vase on his bedside drawer.

“Yeah?” Blaine says.

“Madame July told me that I must lead the dance at the Spring Ball. You know, as a Champion. And I actually argued with Madame July, about this.”

“Why?”

“She… Wants me to go with a girl. She thinks that I will do harm to the image of the school, if I go with a boy.”

“God, that is such bullshit,” Blaine swears, turning angry in a second. He actually panics at how fast that happens lately.

“But I don’t care. I don’t care what she says. I don’t care about the image of the school and all that. If they made me compete, they will have to accept me as their champion. And that means all of me, as I am,” Kurt’s eyes are shining with emotion, when he says it, “So… Will you go to the ball with me?”

“Kurt… Of course I will,” Blaine says, his heart bursting with joy.

They’re sitting so close, and the moment is so right, and there are the flowers that Kurt brought him, and Blaine is still ecstatic from winning the game, and now he will dance with Kurt, not just dance, but open a very important dance, and he is overcome with emotion, and…

Matt chooses that exact moment to come inside, and Blaine actually hears Sam shouting “No! Stop!”, and suddenly the moment is ruined. But Kurt is laughing a little, and Blaine is too. And this evening has already been extremely good as it was.

“Wanna go downstairs to eat?” Blaine says, as he watches Matt loudly rummage through his things, obviously annoyed that he was not allowed to go in his own room.

“Yeah, sure,” Kurt says with a small, secret smile.

At least for now, everything was good. 


End file.
